{{pp|small=yes}} {{Short description|Fiction genre depicting male same-sex relationships}} {{for|the manga of the same name|Boys Love (manga)}} {{good article}} {{Use Oxford spelling|date=November 2013}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}}
[[File:JackXArik.png|right|thumb|upright=1.1|An example of BL-inspired artwork. The svelte, semi-androgynous physical features of the characters are typical of ''bishōnen'' ({{translation}} 'beautiful youth' or 'beautiful boy') common in BL media.]]
{{Nihongo|'''Boys' love'''|ボーイズ ラブ|bōizu rabu|lead=yes}}, also known by its abbreviation {{Nihongo|'''BL'''|ビーエル|bīeru}}, is a genre of fictional media originating in Japan that depicts homoerotic relationships between male characters.{{efn|Works featuring homoerotic relationships between female characters are referred to as ''yuri''.}} It is typically created by women for a female audience, distinguishing it from the equivalent genre of homoerotic media created by and for gay men, though BL does also attract a male audience and can be produced by male creators. BL spans a wide range of media, including manga, anime, drama CDs, novels, video games, television series, films, and fan works.
Though depictions of homosexuality in Japanese media have a history dating to ancient times, contemporary BL traces its origins to male–male romance manga that emerged in the 1970s, and which formed a new subgenre of ''shōjo'' manga (comics for girls). Several terms were used for this genre, including {{nihongo|'''''shōnen-ai'''''|少年愛||{{lit}} "boy love"}}, {{nihongo|'''''tanbi'''''|耽美||{{lit}} "aesthete" or "aesthetic"}}, and {{nihongo|'''''June'''''|ジュネ||{{IPA|ja|dʑɯne|}}}}. The term {{Transliteration|ja|'''yaoi'''}} ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|j|aʊ|i|audio=LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Boys' love.wav}} {{respell|YOW|ee}}; {{langx|ja|やおい}} {{IPA|ja|jaꜜo.i|}}) emerged as a name for the genre in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the context of {{Transliteration|ja|dōjinshi}} (self-published works) culture as a portmanteau of ''yama nashi, ochi nashi, imi nashi'' ("no climax, no point, no meaning"), where it was used in a self-deprecating manner to refer to amateur fan works that focused on sex to the exclusion of plot and character development, and that often parodied mainstream manga and anime by depicting male characters from popular series in sexual scenarios. "Boys' love" was later adopted by Japanese publications in the 1990s as an umbrella term for male–male romance media marketed to women.
Concepts and themes associated with BL include androgynous men known as ''bishōnen''; diminished female characters; narratives that emphasize homosociality and de-emphasize sociocultural homophobia; and depictions of rape. A commonly recurring characteristic of BL is the practice of pairing characters in relationships according to the roles of ''seme'', the sexual top or active pursuer, and ''uke'', the sexual bottom or passive pursued. BL has a robust global presence, having spread since the 1990s through international licensing and distribution, as well as through unlicensed circulation of works by BL fans online. BL works, culture, and fandom have been studied and discussed by scholars and journalists worldwide.
==Etymology and terminology== {{Anime and manga}} Multiple terms exist to describe Japanese and Japanese-influenced male–male romance fiction as a genre. In a 2015 survey of professional Japanese male–male romance fiction writers by Kazuko Suzuki, five primary subgenres were identified:{{sfn|Suzuki|2015|p=93–118}}
;{{nihongo|''{{visible anchor|Shōnen-ai}}''{{efn|The term "''bishōnen'' manga" was occasionally used in the 1970s, but fell out of use by the 1990s as works in this genre began to feature a broader range of protagonists beyond the traditional adolescent boys.<ref name=MizoguchiSubgenres/>}}|少年愛||{{lit}} "boy love"}} :While the term ''shōnen-ai'' historically connoted ephebophilia or pederasty, beginning in the 1970s it was used to describe a new genre of ''shōjo'' manga (girls' manga) featuring romance between ''bishōnen'' ({{lit}} "beautiful boys"), a term for androgynous or effeminate male characters.<ref name="Welker06 842">{{cite journal | last1 = Welker | first1 = James | year = 2006 | title = Beautiful, Borrowed, and Bent: 'Boys' Love' as Girls' Love in Shôjo Manga' | journal = Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society | volume = 31 | issue = 3| page = 842 | doi = 10.1086/498987| s2cid = 144888475 }}</ref> Early ''shōnen-ai'' works were inspired by European literature, the writings of Taruho Inagaki,<ref name="Welker review"/> and the ''Bildungsroman'' genre.<ref name="Bauer p.82">{{cite book|last1=Bauer|first1=Carola|title=Naughty girls and gay male romance/porn: slash fiction, boys' love manga, and other works by Female "Cross-Voyeurs" in the U.S. Academic Discourses|date=2013|publisher=Anchor Academic Publishing|location=[S.l.]|isbn=978-3-95489-001-9|page=81}}</ref> ''Shōnen-ai'' often features references to literature, history, science, and philosophy;{{sfn|Suzuki|1999|p=250}} Suzuki describes the genre as being "pedantic" and "difficult to understand",{{sfn|Suzuki|1999|p=252}} with "philosophical and abstract musings" that challenged young readers who were often only able to understand the references and deeper themes as they grew older.{{sfn|Suzuki|1999|p=251}} ;{{nihongo|''Tanbi''{{efn|In Chinese male-male romance fiction, ''danmei'' (the Mandarin reading of the word {{lang|ja-Latn|tanbi}}) is used.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Wei|first1=John|title=Queer encounters between Iron Man and Chinese boys' love fandom|journal=Transformative Works and Cultures|date=2014|volume=17|doi=10.3983/twc.2014.0561|doi-access=free|hdl=2292/23048|hdl-access=free}}</ref>}}|耽美||{{lit}} "aesthete" or "aesthetic"}} :{{Transliteration|ja|Tanbi}} as a term and concept predates male–male romance manga that emerged in the 1970s, having originated to describe erotic highbrow literary fiction by authors such as Yukio Mishima, Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, and Yasunari Kawabata. By the 1980s, magazines aimed at {{Transliteration|ja|shōnen-ai}} fans were using the term to describe fiction by both amateur and professional writers published in those magazines, as well as to designate literature with themes of homoeroticism and implied homosexuality by authors such as Oscar Wilde, Jean Cocteau, Tatsuhiko Shibusawa, and Mishima. {{Transliteration|ja|Tanbi}} in this context is primarily used to describe prose fiction, but has also been used for manga and visual art.{{sfn|Welker|2015|pp=52–53}} ;{{nihongo|''June''|ジュネ||{{IPA|ja|dʑɯne}}}} :Derived from the eponymous male–male romance manga magazine first published in 1978, the term was originally used to describe works that resembled the art style of manga published in that magazine.<ref name="aestheticism definitions"/> It has also been used to describe amateur works depicting male homosexuality that are original creations and not derivative works.<ref name="WhatIsBL">{{cite web |title=What is Boys' Love? |url=https://futekiya.com/what-is-boys-love/ |website=Futekiya |publisher=Dai Nippon Printing |access-date=14 November 2020 |date=8 March 2020 |archive-date=16 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201116084940/https://futekiya.com/what-is-boys-love/ |url-status=live }}</ref> By the 1990s, the term had largely fallen out of use in favor of "'''boys' love'''"; it has been suggested that publishers wishing to get a foothold in the ''June'' market coined "boys' love" to disassociate the genre from the publisher of ''June''.<ref name=MizoguchiSubgenres/> ;{{nihongo|''{{visible anchor|Yaoi}}''{{efn|In Japan, the term ''yaoi'' is occasionally written as "801", which can be read as ''yaoi'' through Japanese wordplay: the short reading of the number eight is "ya", zero can be read as "o" (a Western influence), while the short reading for one is "i".<ref name="Aoyama Eureka">{{cite journal|last=Aoyama|first=Tomoko|date=April 2009|title=Eureka Discovers Culture Girls, Fujoshi, and BL: Essay Review of Three Issues of the Japanese Literary magazine, Yuriika (Eureka)|journal=Intersections: Gender and Sexuality in Asia and the Pacific|volume=20|url=http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue20/aoyama.htm|access-date=10 February 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120217205556/http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue20/aoyama.htm|archive-date=17 February 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2007-11-15/tonari-no-801-chan-fujoshi-manga-adapted-for-shojo-mag|title=Tonari no 801 chan Fujoshi Manga Adapted for Shōjo Mag|access-date=1 February 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080119120337/http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2007-11-15/tonari-no-801-chan-fujoshi-manga-adapted-for-shojo-mag|archive-date=19 January 2008|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="rjcdef">{{Cite book | last1 = Ingulsrud | first1 = John E. | last2 = Allen | first2 = Kate | title = Reading Japan Cool: Patterns of Manga Literacy and Discourse |page=47 | publisher = Rowman & Littlefield | year = 2009 | isbn = 978-0-7391-2753-7}}</ref> Less commonly, the term is read as an acronym for {{Nihongo||やめて お尻が 痛い|yamete, oshiri ga itai|"stop, my ass hurts!"}}.<ref name="Yaoi Debate"/>}} |やおい}} :Coined in the late 1970s by manga artists Yasuko Sakata and Akiko Hatsu,<ref name="Galbraith 11"/><ref name="Otaku Sexuality Foreword"/> ''yaoi'' is a portmanteau of {{Nihongo||山[場]なし、落ちなし、意味なし|yama nashi, ochi nashi, imi nashi}}, which translates to "no climax, no point, no meaning".{{efn|Kubota Mitsuyoshi says that Osamu Tezuka used ''yama nashi, ochi nashi, imi nashi'' to dismiss poor quality manga, and this was appropriated by the early ''yaoi'' authors.<ref name=rjcdef/> }} The term originated as a self-deprecating and ironic euphemism for male-male romance {{lang|ja-Latn|dōjinshi}} (self-published works) that focus on sex to the exclusion of plot and character development.{{sfn|Suzuki|1999|p=252}}<ref name=rjcdef/>{{sfn|Thorn|2004|p=171}} The term is additionally a subversive reference to the classical Japanese narrative structure of introduction, development, twist, and conclusion.<ref name="pedagogy"/> ;{{nihongo|Boys' love|ボーイズ ラブ|bōizu rabu}} :Typically written as the acronym {{nihongo|'''BL'''|ビーエル|bīeru}}, or alternately as "boy's love" or "boys love", the term is a ''wasei-eigo'' construction derived from the literal English translation of ''shōnen-ai''.<ref name="PLOS One 2018"/> First used in 1991 by the magazine ''Image'' in an effort to collect these disparate genres under a single term, the term became widely popularized in 1994 after being used by the magazine ''{{ill|Puff (magazine)|lt=Puff|ja|ぱふ}}''.<ref name="WhatIsBL"/> "BL" is the common term used to describe male–male romance media marketed to women in Japan and much of Asia, though its usage in the West is inconsistent.<ref name="WhatIsBL"/><ref name="Futekiya"/>
Despite attempts by researchers to codify differences between these subgenres, in practice these terms are used interchangeably.<ref name="PLOS One 2018"/> Kazumi Nagaike and Tomoko Aoyama note that while BL and {{Transliteration|ja|yaoi}} are the most common generic terms for this kind of media, they specifically avoid attempts at defining subgenres, noting that the differences between them are ill-defined and that even when differentiated, the subgenres "remain thematically intertwined."<ref name="PLOS One 2018"/>{{sfn|Nagaike|Aoyama|2015|p=120}}
In Suzuki's investigation of these subgenres, she notes that "there is no appropriate and convenient Japanese shorthand term to embrace all subgenres of male–male love fiction by and for women."{{sfn|Suzuki|2015|p=93–118}}<ref name="PLOS One 2018"/> {{Transliteration|ja|Yaoi}} has been used as an umbrella term in the West for Japanese-influenced comics with male–male relationships,<ref name="aestheticism definitions"/> and was preferentially used by American manga publishers for works of this kind due to the belief that the term "boys' love" carries the implication of pedophilia.<ref name="PLOS One 2018"/> In Japan, {{Transliteration|ja|yaoi}} is used to denote ''dōjinshi'' and works that focus on sex scenes.<ref name="aestheticism definitions"/> In all usages, {{Transliteration|ja|yaoi}} and boys' love excludes gay manga (''bara''), a genre which also depicts gay male sexual relationships, but is written for and mostly by gay men.<ref name="aestheticism definitions"/><ref name="pedagogy"/>
In the West, the term ''shōnen-ai'' is sometimes used to describe titles that focus on romance over explicit sexual content, while ''yaoi'' is used to describe titles that primarily feature sexually explicit themes and subject material.<ref name="What Girls Like?">{{cite magazine |last=Cha |first=Kai-Ming |date=7 March 2005 |title=Yaoi Manga: What Girls Like? |url=http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/print/20050307/29621-yaoi-manga-what-girls-like.html |magazine=Publishers Weekly |access-date=28 November 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141204054730/http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/print/20050307/29621-yaoi-manga-what-girls-like.html |archive-date=4 December 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Wood-06"/><ref name="Galbraith 11"/> ''Yaoi'' can also be used by Western fans as a label for anime or manga-based slash fiction.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hahn Aquila |first1=Meredith Suzanne |title=''Ranma ½'' Fan Fiction Writers: New Narrative Themes or the Same Old Story? |journal=Mechademia |date=2007 |volume=2 |pages=34–47 |doi=10.1353/mec.0.0017|s2cid=201756800 }}</ref> The Japanese use of ''yaoi'' to denote only works with explicit scenes sometimes clashes with the Western use of the word to describe the genre as a whole, creating confusion between Japanese and Western audiences.<ref name="Futekiya"/>
==History== ===Before 1970: The origins of ''shōnen-ai''=== [[File:MoriMari.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Mari Mori, whose ''tanbi'' novels laid the foundation for many of the common genre tropes of {{Transliteration|ja|shōnen-ai}}]] Homosexuality and androgyny have a history in Japan dating to ancient times, as seen in practices such as {{nihongo|''shudō''|衆道||same-sex love between samurai and their companions}} and {{nihongo|''kagema''|陰間||male prostitutes who served as apprentice kabuki actors}}.{{sfn|de Bats|2008b|p=133-134}}{{sfn|McLelland|Welker|2015|p=6-7}} The country shifted away from a tolerance of homosexuality amid Westernization during the Meiji Era (1868–1912), and moved towards hostile social attitudes towards homosexuality and the implementation of anti-sodomy laws.{{sfn|de Bats|2008b|p=136}}{{sfn|McLelland|Welker|2015|p=7}}
In the face of this legal and cultural shift, artists who depicted male homosexuality in their work typically did so through subtext.{{sfn|McLelland|Welker|2015|p=7-8}} Illustrations by {{ill|Kashō Takabatake|ca||fr||ja|高畠華宵}} in the ''shōnen'' manga (boys' comics) magazine ''Nihon Shōnen'' formed the foundation of what would become the aesthetic of ''bishōnen'': boys and young men, often in homosocial or homoerotic contexts, who are defined by their "ambivalent passivity, fragility, ephemerality, and softness."{{sfn|Hartley|2015|p=22}} The 1961 novel ''A Lovers' Forest'' by ''tanbi'' writer Mari Mori, which follows the relationship between a professor and his younger male lover, is regarded as an influential precursor to the ''shōnen-ai'' genre.<ref name="Welker review"/><ref name="Mori Mari"/> Mori's works were influenced by European literature, particularly Gothic literature, and laid the foundation for many of the common tropes of ''shōnen-ai'', {{Transliteration|ja|yaoi}}, and BL: Western exoticism, educated and wealthy characters, significant age differences among couples, and fanciful or even surreal settings.<ref name="Mori Mari"/>
In manga, the concept of {{nihongo|''gekiga''|劇画}} emerged in the late 1950s, which sought to use manga to tell serious and grounded stories aimed at adult audiences. ''Gekiga'' inspired the creation of manga that depicted realistic human relationships, and opened the way for manga that explored human sexuality in a non-pornographic context.{{sfn|Brient|2008b|p=7}} Hideko Mizuno's 1969 ''shōjo'' manga (girls' comics) series ''Fire!'' (1969–1971), which eroticized its male protagonists and depicted male homosexuality in American rock and roll culture, is noted as an influential work in this regard.{{sfn|Welker|2015|p=45}}
===1970s and 1980s: From ''shōnen-ai'' to ''yaoi''=== [[File:Hagio Moto in 2008.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Moto Hagio, a member of the Year 24 Group and a major figure in the ''shōnen-ai'' genre]] Contemporary Japanese homoerotic romance manga originated in the 1970s as a subgenre of ''shōjo'' manga.<ref name="PLOS One 2018"/> The decade saw the arrival of a new generation of ''shōjo'' manga artists, most notable among them the Year 24 Group. The Year 24 Group contributed significantly to the development of the ''shōjo'' manga, introducing a greater diversity of themes and subject material to the genre that drew inspiration from Japanese and European literature, cinema, and history.{{sfn|Welker|2015|p=44}} Members of the group, including Keiko Takemiya and Moto Hagio, created works that depicted male homosexuality: ''In The Sunroom'' (1970) by Takemiya is considered the first work of the genre that would become known as ''shōnen-ai'', followed by Hagio's ''The November Gymnasium'' (1971).{{sfn|Welker|2015|p=47}}
Takemiya, Hagio, Toshie Kihara, Ryoko Yamagishi, and Kaoru Kurimoto were among the most significant ''shōnen-ai'' artists of this era;{{sfn|Welker|2015|p=51}}<ref name="Otaku Sexuality Foreword"/> notable works include ''The Heart of Thomas'' (1974–1975) by Hagio and ''Kaze to Ki no Uta'' (1976–1984) by Takemiya.{{sfn|Welker|2015|p=51}}<ref>{{cite book | last=Angles | first=Jeffrey | author-link=Jeffrey Angles | title=Writing the love of boys: origins of Bishōnen culture in modernist Japanese literature | year=2011 | publisher=University of Minnesota Press | location=Minneapolis | isbn=978-0-8166-6970-7|page=1}}</ref><ref name="Toku Mechademia">{{cite journal |last1=Toku |first1=Masami |title=Shojo Manga! Girls' Comics! A Mirror of Girls' Dreams |journal=Mechademia |date=2007 |volume=2 |pages=19–32 |doi=10.1353/mec.0.0013|s2cid=120302321 }}</ref> Works by these artists typically featured tragic romances between androgynous ''bishōnen'' in historic European settings.<ref name="Welker06 842"/>{{sfn|Welker|2015|p=45}} Though these works were nominally aimed at an audience of adolescent girls and young women, they also attracted adult gay and lesbian readers.<ref name="Welker06 842"/>{{sfn|McLelland|Welker|2015|p=9}} During this same period, the first gay manga magazines were published: ''Barazoku'', the first commercially circulated gay men's magazine in Japan, was published in 1971, and served as a major influence on Takemiya and the development of ''shōnen-ai''.{{sfn|Welker|2015|p=62}}
The {{lang|ja-Latn|dōjinshi}} (self-published works) subculture emerged contemporaneously in the 1970s (see Media below),<ref name="Drawn Together"/><ref name="yaoi redrawing"/> and in 1975, the first Comiket was held as a gathering of amateur artists who produce {{lang|ja-Latn|dōjinshi}}.{{sfn|Welker|2015|p=54}} The term ''yaoi'', initially used by some creators of male–male romance {{lang|ja-Latn|dōjinshi}} to describe their creations ironically, emerged to describe amateur works that were influenced by {{lang|ja-Latn|shōnen-ai}} and gay manga.{{sfn|Welker|2015|p=55–56}}<ref name="Matsui">Matsui, Midori. (1993) "Little girls were little boys: Displaced Femininity in the representation of homosexuality in Japanese girls' comics," in Gunew, S. and Yeatman, A. (eds.) Feminism and The Politics of Difference, pp. 177–196. Halifax: Fernwood Publishing.</ref> Early ''yaoi'' {{lang|ja-Latn|dōjinshi}} produced for Comiket were typically derivative works, with glam rock artists such as David Bowie and Queen as popular subjects as a result of the influence of ''Fire!'';{{sfn|Welker|2015|p=54}} ''yaoi'' {{lang|ja-Latn|dōjinshi}} were also more sexually explicit than ''shōnen-ai''.{{sfn|Welker|2015|p=54–56}}
In reaction to the success of ''shōnen-ai'' and early ''yaoi'', publishers sought to exploit the market by creating magazines devoted to the genre. Young female illustrators cemented themselves in the manga industry by publishing ''yaoi'' works, with this genre later becoming "a transnational subculture."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Kincaid |first1=Chris |title=Yaoi: History, Appeal, and Misconceptions |url=https://www.japanpowered.com/anime-articles/a-brief-history-of-yaoi |website=Japan Powered |access-date=March 28, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200327014443/https://www.japanpowered.com/anime-articles/a-brief-history-of-yaoi |archive-date=March 27, 2020 |date=March 8, 2013 |url-status=live |df=mdy-all }}</ref><ref name="welker">{{cite web |author=<!--Not stated--> |title=James Welker, "Boys Love (BL) Media and Its Asian Transfigurations" |url=https://ceas.sas.upenn.edu/events/james-welker-boys-love-bl-media-and-its-asian-transfigurations |website=Center for East Asian Studies |publisher=The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania |access-date=March 28, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200326215926/https://ceas.sas.upenn.edu/events/james-welker-boys-love-bl-media-and-its-asian-transfigurations |archive-date=March 26, 2020 |date=March 27, 2018 |url-status=live |df=mdy-all }}</ref><ref name="Liu">{{cite journal |last1=Liu |first1=Ting |date=April 2009 |title=Conflicting Discourses on Boys' Love and Subcultural Tactics in Mainland China and Hong Kong |url=http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue20/liu.htm |journal=Intersections: Gender, History and Culture in the Asian Context |issue=20 |access-date=March 28, 2020 |archive-date=28 January 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130128211422/http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue20/liu.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> Publishing house {{ill|Magazine Magazine|ja|マガジン・マガジン}}, which published the gay manga magazine {{ill|Sabu (magazine){{!}}''Sabu''|ja|さぶ (雑誌)}}, launched the magazine ''June'' in 1978, while {{ill|Minori Shobo|ja|みのり書房}} launched ''Allan'' in 1980.{{sfn|Welker|2015|p=61}}{{sfn|Welker|2015|p=59–60}} Both magazines initially specialized in ''shōnen-ai'', which Magazine Magazine described as "halfway between ''tanbi'' literature and pornography,"{{sfn|Welker|2015|p=59}} and also published articles on homosexuality, literary fiction, illustrations, and amateur ''yaoi'' works.{{sfn|Welker|2015|p=60-62}} The success of ''June'' was such that the term ''June-mono'' or more simply ''June'' began to compete with the term ''shōnen-ai'' to describe works depicting male homosexuality.{{sfn|Welker|2015|p=62}}{{sfn|Brient|2008b|p=5-7}}
By the late 1980s, the popularity of professionally published ''shōnen-ai'' was declining, and ''yaoi'' published as ''dōjinshi'' was becoming more popular.{{sfn|Thorn|2004|p=170}} Mainstream ''shōnen'' manga with Japanese settings, such as ''Captain Tsubasa'' became popular source material for derivative works by ''yaoi'' creators, and the genre increasingly depicted Japanese settings over Western settings.{{sfn|Welker|2015|p=57}} Works influenced by ''shōnen-ai'' in the 1980s began to depict older protagonists and adopted a realist style in both plot and artwork, as typified by manga such as ''Banana Fish'' (1985–1994) by Akimi Yoshida and ''Tomoi'' (1986) by {{ill|Wakuni Akisato|ja|秋里和国}}.{{sfn|Welker|2015|p=51}}{{sfn|McLelland|Welker|2015|p=9}} The 1980s also saw the proliferation of ''yaoi'' into anime, drama CDs, and light novels;{{sfn|Welker|2015|p=64-65}} the 1982 anime adaptation of ''Patalliro!'' was the first television anime to depict ''shōnen-ai'' themes, while ''Kaze to Ki no Uta'' and ''Earthian'' were adapted into anime in the original video animation (home video) format in 1987 and 1989, respectively.<ref name="Bollmann"/>
===1990s: Mainstream popularity and ''yaoi ronsō''=== [[File:Clamp at Anime Expo 2006 (cropped).jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.85|The manga artist group Clamp, whose works were among the first ''yaoi''-influenced media to be encountered by Western audiences]] The growing popularity of ''yaoi'' attracted the attention of manga magazine editors, many of whom recruited ''yaoi'' {{lang|ja-Latn|dōjinshi}} authors to their publications;{{sfn|Welker|2015|p=63}} ''Zetsuai 1989'' (1989–1991) by Minami Ozaki, a ''yaoi'' series published in the ''shōjo'' magazine ''Margaret'', was originally a ''Captain Tsubasa'' {{lang|ja-Latn|dōjinshi}} created by Ozaki that she adapted into an original work.{{sfn|Suzuki|1999|p=261}} By 1990, seven Japanese publishers included ''yaoi'' content in their offerings, which kickstarted the commercial publishing market of the genre.<ref name="Bauer p.82"/> Between 1990 and 1995, thirty magazines devoted to ''yaoi'' were established: ''Magazine Be × Boy'', founded in 1993, became one of the most influential ''yaoi'' manga magazines of this era.{{sfn|Welker|2015|p=64}} The manga in these magazines were influenced by realist stories like ''Banana Fish'', and moved away from the ''shōnen-ai'' standards of the 1970s and 1980s.{{sfn|Welker|2015|p=64}}{{sfn|Brient|2008b|p=10}} ''Shōnen-ai'' works that were published during this period were typically comedies rather than melodramas, such as ''Gravitation'' (1996–2002) by Maki Murakami.<ref name="Routledge"/> Consequently, ''yaoi'' and "boys' love" (BL) came to be the most popular terms to describe works depicting male–male romance, eclipsing ''shōnen-ai'' and ''June''.{{sfn|Welker|2015|p=64-65}}
An increasing proportion of ''shōjo'' manga in the 1990s began to integrate ''yaoi'' elements into their plots. The manga artist group Clamp, which itself began as a group creating ''yaoi'' {{lang|ja-Latn|dōjinshi}},{{sfn|Kimbergt|2008|p=113–115}} published multiple works containing ''yaoi'' elements during this period, such as ''RG Veda'' (1990–1995), ''Tokyo Babylon'' (1991–1994), and ''Cardcaptor Sakura'' (1996–2000).{{sfn|Sylvius|2008|p=20-23}} When these works were released in North America, they were among the first ''yaoi''-influenced media to be encountered by Western audiences.{{sfn|Sylvius|2008|p=20-23}} BL gained popularity in mainland China in the late 1990s; the country subsequently outlawed the publishing and distribution of BL works.<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue20/liu.htm |title=Intersections: Conflicting Discourses on Boys' Love and Subcultural Tactics in Mainland China and Hong Kong |journal=Intersections: Gender and Sexuality in Asia and the Pacific |access-date=8 September 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130128211422/http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue20/liu.htm |archive-date=28 January 2013 |url-status=live |last1=Liu|first1=Ting|issue=20|date=2009}}</ref>
The mid-1990s saw the so-called "''yaoi'' debate" or ''yaoi ronsō'' (や お い 論争), a debate held primarily in a series of essays published in the feminist magazine ''Choisir'' from 1992 to 1997.{{sfn|Hishida|2015|p=214}} In an open letter, Japanese gay writer Masaki Satō criticized the genre as homophobic for not depicting gay men accurately,<ref name="Mori Mari"/> and called fans of ''yaoi'' "disgusting women" who "have a perverse interest in sexual intercourse between men."{{sfn|Hishida|2015|p=214}} A years-long debate ensued, with ''yaoi'' fans and artists contending that ''yaoi'' is entertainment for women that does not seek to be a realistic depiction of homosexuality, and instead serves as a refuge from the misogyny of Japanese society.<ref name="Mori Mari"/> The scholarly debate that the ''yaoi ronsō'' engendered led to the formation of the field of "BL studies", which focus on the study of BL and the relationship between women and BL.{{sfn|Nagaike|Aoyama|2015|p=121}} It additionally impacted creators of ''yaoi'': author Chiyo Kurihara abandoned ''yaoi'' to focus on heterosexual pornography as a result of the ''yaoi ronsō'', while Hisako Takamatsu took into account the arguments of the genre's critics to create works more accommodating of a gay audience.<ref name="Mori Mari"/>
===2000s–present: Globalization of ''yaoi'' and BL=== [[File:Animate Ikebukuro 20120613 2 (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.85|Otome Road in Ikebukuro became a major cultural destination for ''yaoi'' fandom in the 2000s.]] The economic crisis caused by the Lost Decade came to affect the manga industry in the late 1990s and early 2000s, but did not particularly impact the ''yaoi'' market; on the contrary, ''yaoi'' magazines continued to proliferate during this period, and sales of ''yaoi'' media increased.{{sfn|Brient|2008b|p=10}}{{sfn|Welker|2015|p=65-66}} In 2004, Otome Road in Ikebukuro emerged as a major cultural destination for ''yaoi'' fandom, with multiple stores dedicated to ''shōjo'' and ''yaoi'' goods.{{sfn|Welker|2015|p=65}} The 2000s also saw an increase in male readers of ''yaoi'', with a 2008 bookstore survey finding that between 25–30% of ''yaoi'' readers were male.{{sfn|de Bats|2008b|p=142}}
The 2000s saw significant growth of ''yaoi'' in international markets, beginning with the founding of the American anime convention Yaoi-Con in 2001.{{sfn|Welker|2015|p=67}} The first officially licensed English-language translations of ''yaoi'' manga were published in the North American market in 2003 (see Media below);<ref name="bonking"/>{{sfn|Brient|2008b|p=11}} the market expanded rapidly before contracting in 2008 as a result of the 2008 financial crisis, but continued to grow slowly in the following years.{{sfn|Welker|2015|p=67}} South Korea saw the development of BL in the form of ''manhwa'', notably ''Martin and John'' (2006) by Park Hee-jung and ''Crush on You'' (2006) by Lee Kyung-ha.{{sfn|Sylvius|2008|p=36-37}}
The 2010s and 2020s saw an increase in the popularity of ''yaoi'' and BL media in China and Thailand in the form of web novels, live-action films, and live-action television dramas (see Media below). Though "boys' love" and "BL" have become the generic terms for this material across Asia, in Thailand, BL dramas are sometimes referred to as "Y" or "Y series" as a shorthand for ''yaoi''.<ref name="ABCNews">{{cite news |last1=Watson |first1=Joey |last2=Jirik |first2=Kim |title=Boys' love: The unstoppable rise of same-sex soapies in Thailand |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-16/boys-love-same-sex-dramas-in-thailand/9874766 |website=ABC News |access-date=17 November 2020 |date=15 June 2018 |archive-date=9 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201109023907/https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-16/boys-love-same-sex-dramas-in-thailand/9874766 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Nikkei">{{cite web |last1=Kishimoto |first1=Marimi |title=Japanese-style 'boys love' dramas captivate Thai women |url=https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Media-Entertainment/Japanese-style-boys-love-dramas-captivate-Thai-women |website=The Nikkei |access-date=17 November 2020 |date=14 November 2020 |archive-date=17 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201117031535/https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Media-Entertainment/Japanese-style-boys-love-dramas-captivate-Thai-women |url-status=live }}</ref> Thai Series Y explicitly adapts the content of Japanese BL to the Thai local context and in recent years has become increasingly popular with fans around the world who often view Thai BL as separate to its Japanese antecedents.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Baudinette|first=Thomas|date=2019-04-03|title=Lovesick, The Series: adapting Japanese 'Boys Love' to Thailand and the creation of a new genre of queer media|journal=South East Asia Research|volume=27|issue=2|pages=115–132|doi=10.1080/0967828X.2019.1627762|s2cid=198767219|issn=0967-828X}}</ref> Thai BL also deliberately borrows from K-pop celebrity culture in the development of its own style of idols known as ''khu jin'' (imaginary couples) who are designed to be paired together by Thai BL's predominantly female fans.<ref>{{Cite web|last=tbaudinette|date=2020-03-07|title=[Recorded Lecture] Thailand's "Boys Love Machine": Producing "queer" idol fandom across Southeast Asia|url=https://thomasbaudinette.wordpress.com/2020/03/07/thailands-boys-love-machine-producing-queer-idol-fandom-across-southeast-asia/|access-date=2021-09-18|website=Thomas Baudinette|language=en|archive-date=2 February 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230202135130/https://thomasbaudinette.com/2020/03/07/thailands-boys-love-machine-producing-queer-idol-fandom-across-southeast-asia/|url-status=live}}</ref> For cultural anthropologist Thomas Baudinette, BL series produced in Thailand represent the next stage in the historic development of BL, which is increasingly becoming "dislocated" from Japan among international fans' understanding of the genre.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Baudinette|first=Thomas|date=2020|title=Creative Misreadings of "Thai BL" by a Filipino Fan Community: Dislocating Knowledge Production in Transnational Queer Fandoms Through Aspirational Consumption|journal=Mechademia: Second Arc|volume=13|issue=1|pages=101–118|doi=10.5749/mech.13.1.0101|jstor=10.5749/mech.13.1.0101|s2cid=219812643|issn=1934-2489}}</ref>
While BL fandom in China traces back to the late 1990s as ''danmei'' (the Mandarin reading of the Japanese term ''tanbi''),<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Xu |first1=Yanrui |last2=Yang |first2=Ling |title=Forbidden love: incest, generational conflict, and the erotics of power in Chinese BL fiction |journal=Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics |date=2013 |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=30–43 |doi=10.1080/21504857.2013.771378 |s2cid=145418374 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21504857.2013.771378 |access-date=2 December 2018 |archive-date=2 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230202135129/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21504857.2013.771378 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref> state regulations in China made it difficult for ''danmei'' writers to publish their works online, with a 2009 ordinance by the National Publishing Administration of China banning most ''danmei'' online fiction.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Liu |first1=Ting |title=Conflicting Discourses on Boys' Love and Subcultural Tactics in Mainland China and Hong Kong |journal=Intersections: Gender and Sexuality in Asia and the Pacific |date=April 2009 |issue=20 |url=http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue20/liu.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130128211422/http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue20/liu.htm |archive-date=28 January 2013 }}</ref> In 2015, laws prohibiting depictions of same-sex relationships in television and film were implemented in China.<ref name="VarietyChina" /> The growth in streaming service providers in the 2010s is regarded as a driving force behind the production of BL dramas across Asia, as online distribution provides a platform for media containing non-heterosexual material, which is frequently not permitted on broadcast television.<ref name="Nikkei" />
==Concepts and themes== ===''Bishōnen''=== {{Main|Bishōnen}}
{{multiple image | width1 = 120 | image1 = David Bowie - TopPop 1974 03 (cropped) (cropped).png | alt1 = David Bowie | image2 = Björn Andrésen dans Mort à Venise.jpg | width2 = 120 | alt2 = Björn Andrésen | image3 = BandoTamasaburoV Nihonbashi Dec2012 (cropped).jpg | width3 = 120 | alt3 = Bandō Tamasaburō | footer = Musician David Bowie, actor Björn Andrésen, and {{Transliteration|ja|kabuki}} actor Bandō Tamasaburō influenced depictions of ''bishōnen'' characters in ''shōjo'' and BL manga. }}
The protagonists of BL are often {{Nihongo||美少年|bishōnen|{{lit}} "beautiful boy"}}, "highly idealised" boys and young men who blend both masculine and feminine qualities.<ref name="Kinsella Otaku 1990s"/> ''Bishōnen'' as a concept can be found disparately throughout East Asia, but its specific aesthetic manifestation in 1970s ''shōjo'' manga (and subsequently in {{Transliteration|ja|shōnen-ai}} manga) drew influence from popular culture of the era, including glam rock artists such as David Bowie,<ref name=Orbaugh/> actor Björn Andrésen's portrayal of Tadzio in the 1971 film adaptation of ''Death in Venice'', and kabuki ''onnagata'' Bandō Tamasaburō.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Monden |first1=Masafumi |title=The Beautiful Shōnen of the Deep and Moonless Night: The Boyish Aesthetic in Modern Japan |journal=ASIEN |date=April 2018 |issue=147 |pages=64–91 |url=https://www.academia.edu/37751944 |access-date=31 July 2022 |archive-date=2 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230202135132/https://www.academia.edu/37751944 |url-status=live }}</ref> Though ''bishōnen'' are not exclusive to BL, the androgyny of ''bishōnen'' is often exploited to explore notions of sexuality and gender in BL works.<ref name=Orbaugh>{{cite book | last = Orbaugh | first =Sharalyn | editor = Sandra Buckley | title = Encyclopedia of Contemporary Japanese Culture | publisher = Taylor & Francis | year = 2002 | pages = 45–56 | isbn = 0-415-14344-6 }}</ref>
The late 2010s saw the increasing popularity of masculine men in BL that are reminiscent of the body types typical in gay manga, with growing emphasis on stories featuring muscular bodies and older characters.<ref name="ChilChil"/><ref name="June1"/> A 2017 survey by BL publisher Juné Manga found that while over 80% of their readership previously preferred ''bishōnen'' body types exclusively, 65% now enjoy both ''bishōnen'' and muscular body types.<ref name="June2"/> Critics and commentators have noted that this shift in preferences among BL readers, and subsequent creation of works that feature characteristics of both BL and gay manga represents a blurring of the distinctions between the genres;<ref name="June1"/><ref name="TCAF"/> anthropologist Thomas Baudinette notes in his fieldwork that gay men in Japan "saw no need to sharply disassociate BL from [gay manga] when discussing their consumption of 'gay media'."<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Baudinette|first=Thomas|date=2017-04-01|title=Japanese gay men's attitudes towards 'gay manga' and the problem of genre|journal=East Asian Journal of Popular Culture|language=en|volume=3|issue=1|page=63|doi=10.1386/eapc.3.1.59_1|issn=2051-7084}}</ref>
===''Seme'' and ''uke''=== left|thumb|upright=0.85|Artwork depicting a ''seme'' (top) and ''uke'' (bottom) couple The two participants in a BL relationship (and to a lesser extent in ''yuri'')<ref>Aoki, Deb (3 March 2007) [http://manga.about.com/od/mangaartistswriters/a/EFriedman_2.htm Interview: Erica Friedman – Page 2] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130513171703/http://manga.about.com/od/mangaartistswriters/a/EFriedman_2.htm |date=13 May 2013 }} "Because the dynamic of the ''seme''/''uke'' is so well known, it's bound to show up in ''yuri''. ... In general, I'm going to say no. There is much less obsession with pursued/pursuer in ''yuri'' manga than there is in ''yaoi''."</ref> are often referred to as {{Nihongo||攻め|seme|{{lit}} "top", as derived from the ''ichidan'' verb "to attack"}} and {{Nihongo||受け|uke|{{lit}} "bottom", as derived from the ''ichidan'' verb "to receive"}}.<ref name="Kinsella Otaku 1990s"/> These terms originated in martial arts, and were later appropriated as Japanese LGBT slang to refer to the insertive and receptive partners in anal sex.<ref name="Zanghellini">{{Cite journal| last1 = Zanghellini | first1 = A.| title = Underage Sex and Romance in Japanese Homoerotic Manga and Anime| journal = Social & Legal Studies| volume = 18| issue = 2| pages = 159–177| year = 2009| doi = 10.1177/0964663909103623| s2cid = 143779263}}</ref> Aleardo Zanghellini suggests that the martial arts terms have special significance to a Japanese audience, as an archetype of the gay male relationship in Japan includes same-sex love between samurai and their companions.<ref name=Zanghellini /> He suggests that the samurai archetype is responsible for age differences and hierarchical variations in power of some relationships portrayed in BL.<ref name=Zanghellini/>
The ''seme'' is often depicted as restrained, physically powerful, and protective; he is generally older and taller,<ref name="yaoi101"/> with a stronger chin, shorter hair, smaller eyes, and a more stereotypically masculine and "macho"{{sfn|Suzuki|1999|p=253}} demeanour than the ''uke''. The ''seme'' usually pursues the ''uke'', who often has softer, androgynous, feminine features with bigger eyes and a smaller build, and is often physically weaker than the ''seme''.<ref name="Boston"/> The roles of ''seme'' and ''uke'' can alternatively be established by who is dominant in the relationship; a character can take the ''uke'' role even if he is not presented as feminine, simply by being juxtaposed against and pursued by a more dominant and masculine character.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sihombing |first1=Febriani |title=On The Iconic Difference between Couple Characters in Boys Love Manga |journal=Image & Narrative |date=2011 |volume=12 |issue=1 |url=http://www.imageandnarrative.be/index.php/imagenarrative/article/viewFile/130/101 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150721000737/http://www.imageandnarrative.be/index.php/imagenarrative/article/viewFile/130/101 |archive-date=21 July 2015 }}</ref> Anal sex is ubiquitous in BL,<ref name="revisited"/> and is typically rendered explicitly and not merely implied;<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kamm |first=Björn-Ole |title=Nutzen und Gratifikation bei Boys' Love Manga Fujoshi oder verdorbene Mädchen in Japan und Deutschland |date=2010 |publisher=Kovac |isbn=978-3-8300-4941-8 |oclc=1074487637 |language=German }}</ref> Zanghellini notes that illustrations of anal sex almost always position the characters to face each other rather than "doggy style", and that the ''uke'' rarely fellates the ''seme'', but instead receives the sexual and romantic attentions of the ''seme''.<ref name=Zanghellini/>
Though Mark McLelland notes that authors are typically "interested in exploring, not repudiating" the dynamics between the ''seme'' and ''uke'',{{sfn|McLelland|2005|p=24}} not all works adhere to ''seme'' and ''uke'' tropes.<ref name = "Yowie"/><ref name="girly uke"/> The possibility of switching roles is often a source of playful teasing and sexual excitement for the characters,<ref>{{cite web |last1=Manry |first1=Gia |title=It's A Yaoi Thing: Boys Who Love Boys and the Women Who Love Them |url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_145/4629-It-s-A-Yaoi-Thing |website=The Escapist |access-date=9 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080709014147/http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_145/4629-It-s-A-Yaoi-Thing |archive-date=9 July 2008 |date=16 April 2008}}</ref> indicating an interest among many genre authors in exploring the performative nature of the roles.<ref name="Wood-06">{{cite journal | last1 = Wood | first1 = Andrea | year = 2006 | title = Straight" Women, Queer Texts: Boy-Love Manga and the Rise of a Global Counterpublic | journal = WSQ: Women's Studies Quarterly | volume = 34 | issue = 1/2| pages = 394–414}}</ref> {{nihongo|''Riba''|リバ}}, a shorthand for "reversible" (リバーシブル), is used to describe couples where the ''seme'' and ''uke'' roles are not strictly defined.<ref>{{cite web |title=What is Seme/Uke/Riba? |url=https://futekiya.com/what-is-seme-uke-riba/ |website=Futekiya |access-date=5 January 2021 |date=27 March 2020 |archive-date=8 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210108041443/https://futekiya.com/what-is-seme-uke-riba/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Occasionally, authors will forego the stylisations of the ''seme'' and ''uke'' to portray both lovers as "equally attractive handsome men", or will subvert expectations of dominance by depicting the active pursuer in the relationship as taking the passive role during sex.{{sfn|Suzuki|1999|p=253}} In other cases, the ''uke'' is presented as more sexually aggressive than the ''seme''; in these instances, the roles are sometimes referred to as {{nihongo|''osoi uke''|襲い受け||"attacking ''uke''"}} and {{nihongo|''hetare seme''|ヘタレ攻め||"wimpy ''seme''"}}.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kamm |first1=Björn-Ole |title=Rotten use patterns: What entertainment theories can do for the study of boys' love |journal=Transformative Works and Cultures |date=15 March 2013 |volume=12 |page=12 |doi=10.3983/twc.2013.0427 |url=http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/427 |doi-access=free |access-date=5 January 2021 |archive-date=10 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210110151436/https://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/427 |url-status=live }}</ref>
===Diminished female characters=== Historically, female characters had minor roles in BL, or were absent altogether.<ref name=Akibayaoi/><ref name="Fletcher 2002"/> Suzuki notes that mothers in particular are often portrayed in a negative light; she suggests this is because the character and reader alike are seeking to substitute the absence of unconditional maternal love with the "forbidden" all-consuming love presented in BL.{{sfn|Suzuki|1999|p=259–260}} In {{lang|ja-Latn|dōjinshi}} parodies based on existing works that include female characters, the female's role is typically either minimized or the character is killed off;<ref name="Fletcher 2002"/><ref>Drazen, Patrick (October 2002). '"A Very Pure Thing": Gay and Pseudo-Gay Themes' in ''Anime Explosion! The What, Why & Wow of Japanese Animation'' Berkeley, California: Stone Bridge Press p. 95 {{ISBN|1-880656-72-8}}. "The five pilots of ''Gundam Wing'' (1995) have female counterparts, yet a lot of fan sites are produced as if these girls never existed."</ref> Yukari Fujimoto noted that in these parodies, "it seems that ''yaoi'' readings and likeable female characters are mutually exclusive."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Fujimoto|first1=Yukari|editor1-last=Berndt|editor1-first=Jaqueline|editor2-last=Kümmerling-Meibauer|editor2-first=Bettina|title=Manga's cultural crossroads|date=2013|publisher=Taylor and Francis|location=Hoboken|isbn=978-1-134-10283-9|page=184}}</ref> Nariko Enomoto, a BL author, suggests that women are typically not depicted in BL as their presence adds an element of realism that distracts from a fantasy narrative.<ref name="OtakuSexuality">{{cite journal |last1=Tamaki |first1=Saitō |editor1-last=Bolton |editor1-first=Christopher |editor2-last=Csicsery-Ronay |editor2-first=Istvan Jr. |editor3-last=Tatsumi |editor3-first=Takayuki |editor3-link=Takayuki Tatsumi |title=Otaku Sexuality |journal=Robot Ghosts and Wired Dreams |date=2007 |page=231 |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |isbn=978-0-8166-4974-7}}</ref>
Since the late 2000s, women have appeared more frequently in BL works as supporting characters.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Fermin|first1=Tricia Abigail Santos|title=Appropriating Yaoi and Boys Love in the Philippines: Conflict, Resistance and Imaginations Through and Beyond Japan|journal=Ejcjs|date=2013|volume=13|issue=3|url=http://japanesestudies.org.uk/ejcjs/vol13/iss3/fermin.html|access-date=10 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141231095242/http://japanesestudies.org.uk/ejcjs/vol13/iss3/fermin.html|archive-date=31 December 2014}}</ref> Lunsing notes that early ''shōnen-ai'' and ''yaoi'' were often regarded as misogynistic, with the diminished role of female characters cited as evidence of the internalized misogyny of the genre's largely female readership.<ref name="Yaoi Debate"/> He suggests that the decline of these misogynistic representations over time is evidence that authors and readers "overcame this hate, possibly thanks to their involvement with {{Transliteration|ja|yaoi}}."<ref name="Yaoi Debate"/>
===Gay equality=== BL stories are often strongly homosocial, giving men freedom to bond and pursue shared goals together (as in ''dojinshi'' adaptations of ''shōnen'' manga), or to rival each other (as in ''Embracing Love''). This spiritual bond and equal partnership is depicted as overcoming the male–female gender hierarchy.<ref name="Nagaike03"/> As is typical in romance fiction, couples depicted in these stories often must overcome obstacles that are emotional or psychological rather than physical.<ref name="Yaoi EEL"/> Akiko Mizoguchi notes that while early stories depicted homosexuality as a source of shame to heighten dramatic tension in this regard, beginning in the mid-2000s the genre began to depict gay identity with greater sensitivity and nuance, with series such as ''Brilliant Blue'' featuring stories of coming out and the characters' gradual acceptance within the wider community.<ref name="Mizoguchi10"/> BL typically depicts Japanese society as more accepting of LGBT people than it is in reality, which Mizoguchi contends is a form of activism among BL authors.<ref name="Mizoguchi10">{{cite book|last=Mizoguchi |first=Akiko |title=Comics Worlds and the World of Comics: Towards Scholarship on a Global Scale |date=September 2010 |publisher=International Manga Research Center, Kyoto Seika University |isbn=978-4-905187-01-1 |pages=145–170 |chapter-url=http://imrc.jp/2010/09/26/20100924Comics%20Worlds%20and%20the%20World%20of%20Comics.pdf |editor=Berndt, Jaqueline |access-date=29 October 2010 |location=Kyoto, Japan |chapter=Theorizing comics/manga genre as a productive forum: yaoi and beyond |archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/69VoOtasa?url=http://imrc.jp/2010/09/26/20100924Comics%20Worlds%20and%20the%20World%20of%20Comics.pdf |archive-date=29 July 2012 }}</ref> Some longer-form stories such as ''Fake'' and ''Kizuna: Bonds of Love'' have the couple form a family unit, depicting them cohabiting and adopting children.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Salek |first1=Rebecca |title=More Than Just Mommy and Daddy: "Nontraditional" Families in Comics |url=http://www.sequentialtart.com/archive/june05/allaccess_0605.shtml |website=Sequential Tart |access-date=9 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060702101040/http://www.sequentialtart.com/archive/june05/allaccess_0605.shtml |archive-date=2 July 2006 |date=June 2005}}</ref> It is also possible that they marry and have children, as in Omegaverse publications.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Katarina |first1=Agnes |title=Heteronormativity in BL Webtoons Love is an Illusion, Room to Room, and Path to You |last2=Candra |first2=Dewi |last3=Mochtar |first3=Jenny |journal=K@ta Kita |year=2021 |volume=9 |issue=3 |pages=364–371 |doi=10.9744/katakita.9.3.364-371|s2cid=252554305 |doi-access=free }}</ref> Fujimoto cites ''Ossan's Love'' (2016–2018) and other BL television dramas that emerged in the 2010s as a "'missing link' to bridge the gap between BL fiction and gay people," arguing that when BL narratives are presented using human actors, it produces a "subconscious change in the perception of viewers" towards acceptance of homosexuality.<ref name="Nippon.com"/>
Although gay male characters are empowered in BL, the genre frequently does not address the reality of sociocultural homophobia. According to Hisako Miyoshi, vice editor-in-chief for Libre Publishing, while earlier works in the genre focused "more on the homosexual way of life from a realistic perspective", over time the genre has become less realistic and more comedic, and the stories are "simply for entertainment".{{sfn|de Bats|2008a|p=17–19}} BL manga often have fantastical, historical or futuristic settings, and many fans consider the genre to be escapist fiction.<ref name="Shamoon p.86">{{cite journal |last1=Shamoon |first1=Deborah |editor1-last=Williams |editor1-first=Linda |editor1-link=Linda Williams (film critic) |title=Office Sluts and Rebel Flowers: The Pleasures of Japanese Pornographic Comics for Women |journal=Porn Studies |date=July 2004 |page=86 |publisher=Duke University Press}}</ref> Homophobia, when it is presented as an issue at all,<ref name="Yowie"/> is used as a plot device to heighten drama,<ref name="Romance by Any Other Name"/> or to show the purity of the leads' love. Rachel Thorn has suggested that as BL is primarily a romance genre, its readers may be turned off by political themes such as homophobia.{{sfn|Thorn|2004|p=173}} BL author Makoto Tateno expressed skepticism that realistic depictions of gay men's lives would become common in BL "because girls like fiction more than realism".<ref>{{cite news |last=Wildsmith |first=Snow |title=Yaoi Love: An Interview with Makoto Tateno |url=http://www.graphicnovelreporter.com/authors/makoto-tateno/news/interview-072809 |work=Graphic Novel Reporter |access-date=28 November 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141128223641/http://www.graphicnovelreporter.com/authors/makoto-tateno/news/interview-072809 |archive-date=28 November 2014 }}</ref> Alan Williams argues that the lack of a gay identity in BL is due to BL being postmodern, stating that "a common utterance in the genre—when a character claims that he is 'not gay, but just in love with a man'—has both homophobic (or modern) temporal undertones but also non-identitarian (postmodern) ones."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Williams |first1=Alan |title=Rethinking ''Yaoi'' on the Regional and Global Scale |journal=Intersections: Gender and Sexuality in Asia and the Pacific |date=March 2015 |issue=37 |url=http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue37/williams.htm | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220408153537/http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue37/williams.htm | archive-date=8 April 2022}}</ref> In 2019, BL manga magazine editors stated that stories where a man is concerned about coming out as gay have become uncommon and the trope can be seen as outdated if used as a source of conflict between the characters.<ref name="pixivision 2019-07-09"/>
===Rape=== Eroticized depictions of rape are often associated with BL.<ref name="Nagaike03" /> Anal sex is understood as a means of expressing commitment to a partner, and in BL, the "apparent violence" of rape is transformed into a "measure of passion".{{sfn|Suzuki|1999|p=257–258}} Rape scenes in BL are rarely presented as crimes with an assaulter and a victim: scenes where a ''seme'' rapes an ''uke'' are not depicted as symptomatic of the violent desires of the ''seme'', but rather as evidence of the uncontrollable attraction felt by the ''seme'' towards the ''uke''. Such scenes are often a plot device used to make the ''uke'' see the ''seme'' as more than just a good friend, and typically result in the ''uke'' falling in love with the ''seme''.<ref name="Nagaike03" />
While Japanese society often shuns or looks down upon women who are raped in reality, the BL genre depicts men who are raped as still "imbued with innocence" and are typically still loved by their rapists after the act, a trope that may have originated with ''Kaze to Ki no Uta''.{{sfn|Suzuki|1999|p=257–258}} Kristy Valenti of ''The Comics Journal'' notes that rape narratives typically focus on how "irresistible" the ''uke'' is and how the ''seme'' "cannot control himself" in his presence, thus absolving the ''seme'' of responsibility for his rape of the ''uke''. She notes this is likely why the narrative climax of many BL stories depicts the ''seme'' recognizing, and taking responsibility for, his sexual desires.<ref name="Valenti">{{cite news |last=Valenti |first=Kristy L. |date=July 2005 |title="Stop, My Butt Hurts!" The Yaoi Invasion |url=http://archives.tcj.com/269/e_yaoi.html |work=The Comics Journal |issue=269 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120327192235/http://archives.tcj.com/269/e_yaoi.html |archive-date=27 March 2012 |access-date=28 November 2014}}</ref> Where the ''uke'' is raped by a third party, the relationship is shown to be emotionally supportive.<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.jprstudies.org/2017/04/the-boys-love-phenomenon-a-literature-reviewby-agnes-zsila-and-zsolt-demetrovics/ | title=The boys' love phenomenon: A literature review | journal=Journal of Popular Romance Studies | date=12 April 2017 | last1=Zsila | first1=Ágnes }}</ref> Conversely, some stories such as ''Under Grand Hotel'' subvert the rape fantasy trope entirely by presenting rape as a negative and traumatic act.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Lawrence |first1=Briana |title=Under Grand Hotel Vol. #01 Manga Review |url=http://www.mania.com/under-grand-hotel-vol-01_article_123833.html |website=Mania |access-date=9 July 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100709022538/http://www.mania.com/under-grand-hotel-vol-01_article_123833.html |archive-date=9 July 2010 |date=7 July 2010}}</ref>
A 2012 survey of English-language BL fans found that just 15% of respondents reported that the presence of rape in BL media made them uncomfortable, as the majority of respondents could distinguish between the "fantasy, genre-driven rape" of BL and rape as a crime in reality.<ref name="Routledge"/> This "surprisingly high tolerance" for depictions of rape is contextualized by a content analysis, which found that just 13% of all original Japanese BL available commercially in English contains depictions of rape. These findings are argued as "possibly belying the perception that rape is almost ubiquitous in BL/''yaoi''."<ref name="Routledge">{{cite book |last1=Madill |first1=Anna |editor1-last=Smith |editor1-first=Clarissa |editor2-last=Attwood |editor2-first=Feona |editor3-last=McNair |editor3-first=Brian |chapter=Erotic Manga: Boys' love, shonen-ai, yaoi and (MxM) shotacon |title=The Routledge Companion to Media, Sex and Sexuality |date=2017 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x0IwDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT188 |publisher=Routledge |doi=10.4324/9781315168302-13 |isbn=978-0-367-58117-6 |access-date=21 November 2020 |archive-date=2 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230202135131/https://books.google.com/books?id=x0IwDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT188 |url-status=live |chapter-url-access=subscription }}</ref>
===Tragedy=== Tragic narratives that focused on the suffering of the protagonists were popular early ''June'' stories,<ref name="Gravett">{{cite book |last1=Gravett |first1=Paul |author-link1=Paul Gravett |title=Manga: 60 Years of Japanese Comics |title-link=Manga: 60 Years of Japanese Comics |date=2004 |publisher=Harper Design |isbn=1-85669-391-0 |pages=80–81}}</ref> particularly stories that ended in one or both members of the central couple dying from suicide.<ref name="Dreamland June">{{cite book |last1=Schodt |first1=Frederik L. |author-link1=Frederik L. Schodt |title=Dreamland Japan: Writings on Modern Manga |date=1996 |publisher=Stone Bridge Press |isbn=978-1-880656-23-5 |pages=120–123}}</ref> By the mid-1990s, happy endings were more common;<ref name="Dreamland June"/> when tragic endings are shown, the cause is typically not an interpersonal conflict between the couple, but "the cruel and intrusive demands of an uncompromising outside world".{{sfn|McLelland|2000|p=69}} Thorn theorizes that depictions of tragedy and abuse in BL exist to allow the audience "to come to terms in some way with their own experiences of abuse."{{sfn|Thorn|2004|p=177}}
===Subgenres and related genres=== {{Main|Bara (genre)|Shotacon|Omegaverse}} {{nihongo||薔薇|''Bara''|"rose"}}, also known as {{nihongo|gay manga|ゲイ漫画}} or {{nihongo||ゲイコミ|''gei komi''|"gay comics"}} is a genre focused on male same-sex love, as created primarily by gay men for a gay male audience.{{sfn|McLelland|2000|p=131}} Gay manga typically focuses on masculine men with varying degrees of muscle, body fat, and body hair, in contrast to the androgynous ''bishōnen'' of BL. Graham Kolbeins writes in ''Massive: Gay Erotic Manga and the Men Who Make It'' that while BL can be understood as a primarily feminist phenomenon, in that it depicts sex that is free of the patriarchal trappings of heterosexual pornography, gay manga is primarily an expression of gay male identity.<ref name="MASSIVE"/> The early 2000s saw a degree of overlap between BL and gay manga in BDSM-themed publications: the {{Transliteration|ja|yaoi}} BDSM anthology magazine {{nihongo||絶対零度|Zettai Reido}} had several male contributors,<ref name="Yaoi Debate"/><ref name="BLLAB"/> while several female BL authors have contributed stories to BDSM-themed gay manga anthologies or special issues,<ref name="BLLAB"/> occasionally under male pen names.<ref name="MASSIVE">{{cite book |editor1-last= Ishii |editor1-first= Anne |editor1-link= Anne Ishii |editor2-last= Kidd |editor2-first= Chip |editor2-link= Chip Kidd |editor3-last= Kolbeins |editor3-first= Graham |editor3-link= Graham Kolbeins |title= Massive: Gay Erotic Manga and the Men Who Make It |publisher= Fantagraphics Books |date=2014 |isbn=978-1-60699-785-7 |page=32 }}</ref>
{{Nihongo|''Shotacon''|ショタコン|shotakon}} is a genre that depicts prepubescent or pubescent boys in a romantic or pornographic context. Originating as an offshoot of {{Transliteration|ja|yaoi}} in the early 1980s, the subgenre was later adopted by male readers and became influenced by ''lolicon'' (works depicting prepubescent or pubescent girls);<ref name="OtakuSexuality"/> the conflation of ''shotacon'' in its contemporary usage with BL is thus not universally accepted, as the genre constitutes material that marketed to both male and female audiences.<ref name="Routledge"/>
Omegaverse is a male–male romance subgenre that originated from the American series ''Supernatural''<ref>{{cite news |date=23 May 2020 |title= A Feud in Wolf-Kink Erotica Raises a Deep Legal Question |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/23/business/omegaverse-erotica-copyright.html |last=Alter |first=Alexandra |work= The New York Times |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200611030407/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/23/business/omegaverse-erotica-copyright.html |access-date=7 January 2023|archive-date= 11 June 2020 }}</ref> and in the 2010s became a subgenre of both commercial and non-commercial BL.<ref name="ANN">{{cite press release |date=22 December 2019 |title=New Omegaverse(A/B/O) Titles Coming to Renta |url=https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/press-release/2019-12-22/new-omegaverse-titles-coming-to-renta/.154669 |publisher=Anime News Network |access-date=17 July 2020 |archive-date=27 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220227083248/https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/press-release/2019-12-22/new-omegaverse-titles-coming-to-renta/.154669 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://booklive.jp/bkmr/omegaverse-bl-comic | title=《2019年版》おすすめオメガバースBL漫画17選【初心者向けから上級者向けまで】 | trans-title=Top 17 Recommended BL Omegaverse Manga for 2019 | language=ja | work=BookLive! | date=2018-07-11 | access-date=2020-04-16 | archive-date=5 March 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220305134719/https://booklive.jp/bkmr/omegaverse-bl-comic | url-status=live }}</ref> Stories in the genre are premised on societies wherein humans are divided into a dominance hierarchy of dominant "alphas", neutral "betas", and submissive "omegas". These terms are derived from those used in ethology to describe social hierarchies in animals.<ref name="NYT 23 May 2020">{{cite news |last1=Alter |first1=Alexandra |title=A Feud in Wolf-Kink Erotica Raises a Deep Legal Question |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/23/business/omegaverse-erotica-copyright.html |work=The New York Times |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200611030407/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/23/business/omegaverse-erotica-copyright.html |archive-date=11 June 2020 |date=23 May 2020}}</ref>
The "dom/sub universe" subgenre emerged in 2017 and gained popularity in 2021. The subgenre uses BDSM elements and also draws influences from Omegaverse, particularly the use of a caste system.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://blnews.chil-chil.net/newsDetail/13779/ | title=【作品追加】本能… 抗えない究極の主従関係！ Dom/Subユニバースが話題 | language=ja | work=Chil Chil | date=2017-01-22 | access-date=2022-02-09 | archive-date=2 February 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230202135200/https://blnews.chil-chil.net/newsDetail/13779/ | url-status=live }}</ref>
==Media== {{Main|List of boys' love anime and manga}} In 2003, 3.8% of weekly Japanese manga magazines were dedicated exclusively to BL. Notable ongoing and defunct magazines include ''Magazine Be × Boy'', ''June'', ''Craft'', ''Chara'', ''Dear+'', ''Opera'', ''{{ill|Ciel (magazine){{!}}''Ciel''|ja|CIEL_(雑誌)}}'', and ''Gush''.<ref name="Galbraith 11"/> Several of these magazines were established as companion publications to ''shōjo'' manga magazines, as they include material considered too explicit for an all-ages audience; ''Ciel'' was established as a companion to ''Monthly Asuka'', while ''Dear+'' was established as a companion to ''Wings''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Thompson |first1=Jason |author1-link=Jason Thompson (writer) |title=Manga: The Complete Guide |date=2007 |publisher=Del Rey Books |location=New York |isbn=978-0-345-48590-8 |page=416}}</ref> A 2008 assessment estimated that the Japanese commercial BL market grossed approximately {{JPY|12 billion}} annually, with novel sales generating {{JPY|250 million}} per month, manga generating {{JPY|400 million}} per month, CDs generating {{JPY|180 million}} per month, and video games generating {{JPY|160 million}} per month.<ref name="Nagaike">{{cite journal|last=Nagaike|first=Kazumi|date=April 2009|title=Elegant Caucasians, Amorous Arabs, and Invisible Others: Signs and Images of Foreigners in Japanese BL Manga|journal=Intersections: Gender and Sexuality in Asia and the Pacific|issue=20|url=http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue20/nagaike.htm|access-date=10 February 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120217205726/http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue20/nagaike.htm|archive-date=17 February 2012}}</ref> A 2010 report estimated that the Japanese BL market was worth approximately {{JPY|21.3 billion}} in both 2009 and 2010.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Loo |first1=Egan |title=Yano Research Reports on Japan's 2009-10 Otaku Market |url=https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2010-10-14/yano-research-reports-on-japan-2009-10-otaku-market |website=Anime News Network |access-date=9 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120114053615/http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2010-10-14/yano-research-reports-on-japan-2009-10-otaku-market |archive-date=14 January 2012 |date=13 October 2010}}</ref> In 2019, editors from ''Lynx'', ''Magazine Be × Boy'', and ''On BLUE'' stated that, with the growth of BL artists in Taiwan and South Korea, they have recruited and published several of their works in Japan with expectations that the BL manga industry will diversify.<ref name="pixivision 2019-07-09">{{cite news | first=Ichibo | last=Harada | url=https://www.pixivision.net/en/a/4866 | title=Editorial departments from three BL magazines talk about the future of BL - Forbidden love is outdated! | work=Pixivision | date=2019-07-09 | access-date=2022-12-29 | archive-date=2 February 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230202135136/https://www.pixivision.net/en/a/4866 | url-status=live }}</ref>
===Fan works ({{lang|ja-Latn|dōjinshi}})=== {{Main|Dōjinshi}} [[File:Yukipon SxH1.jpg|thumb|right|BL {{lang|ja-Latn|dōjinshi}} are typically derivative works based on existing media, as in this fan art of Harry Potter and Severus Snape from the ''Harry Potter'' series.]]
The {{Transliteration|ja|dōjinshi}} (self-published fan works) subculture emerged in the 1970s contemporaneously with BL subculture and Western fan fiction culture.<ref name="Drawn Together"/><ref name="yaoi redrawing"/> Characteristic similarities of fan works in both Japan and the West include non-adherence to a standard narrative structures and a particular popularity of science fiction themes.<ref name="Kinsella Otaku 1990s"/> Early BL ''dōjinshi'' were amateur publications that were not controlled by media restrictions, were typically derivative works based on existing manga and anime, and were often written by teenagers for an adolescent audience.<ref name="yaoi redrawing"/><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ishikawa |first1=Yu |title=Yaoi: Fan Art in Japan |journal=Compilation of Papers and Seminar Proceedings - Comparative Studies on Urban Cultures |date=September 2008 |pages=17–19 |url=http://educa.lit.osaka-cu.ac.jp/~ggp/nakami/2008/Comparative%20Studies%20on%20Urban%20Cultures02.pdf#page=33 |publisher=Osaka City University |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722073442/http://educa.lit.osaka-cu.ac.jp/~ggp/nakami/2008/Comparative%20Studies%20on%20Urban%20Cultures02.pdf |archive-date=22 July 2011}}</ref> Several legitimate manga artists produce or produced ''dōjinshi'': the manga artist group Clamp began as an amateur ''dōjinshi'' circle creating {{Transliteration|ja|yaoi}} works based on ''Saint Seiya'',{{sfn|Kimbergt|2008|p=113–115}} while Kodaka Kazuma<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.akibaangels.com/articles/07_2006/bebeautiful.php |title=Yaoi Publishers Interviews: Part 3 - Be Beautiful |author=Lees Sharon-Ann |date=July 2006 |website=Akiba Angels |access-date=29 November 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060909041134/http://www.akibaangels.com/articles/07_2006/bebeautiful.php |archive-date=9 September 2006 }}</ref> and Fumi Yoshinaga<ref>{{cite web |title=「きのう何食べた？」ケンジ×シロさんのBLを、よしながふみが描く同人誌 |url=https://natalie.mu/comic/news/170056 |website=Comic Natalie |access-date=3 September 2019 |date=22 December 2015 |archive-date=3 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190903020051/https://natalie.mu/comic/news/170056 |url-status=live }}</ref> have produced ''dōjinshi'' concurrently with professionally published works. Many publishing companies review BL ''dōjinshi'' to recruit talented amateurs; this practice has led to careers in mainstream manga for Youka Nitta, Shungiku Nakamura, and others.<ref name="Yōka Nitta interview">{{cite web |last1=O'Connell |first1=M. |title=Embracing Yaoi Manga: Youka Nitta |url=http://www.sequentialtart.com/article.php?id=99 |website=Sequential Tart |access-date=27 February 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070227233701/http://www.sequentialtart.com/article.php?id=99 |archive-date=27 February 2007 |date=April 2006}}</ref><ref name=Bollmann/>
Typically, BL ''dōjinshi'' feature male–male pairings from non-romantic manga and anime. Much of the material derives from male-oriented ''shōnen'' and ''seinen'' works, which contain close male–male friendships perceived by fans to imply elements of homoeroticism,{{sfn|Thorn|2004|p=171}} such as with ''Captain Tsubasa''<ref name="pedagogy"/> and ''Saint Seiya'', two titles which popularised {{Transliteration|ja|yaoi}} in the 1980s.<ref name="yaoi redrawing"/> ''Weekly Shonen Jump'' is known to have a large female readership who engage in BL readings;<ref>{{cite book|last1=Fujimoto|first1=Yukari|editor1-last=Berndt|editor1-first=Jaqueline|editor2-last=Kümmerling-Meibauer|editor2-first=Bettina|title=Manga's cultural crossroads|date=2013|publisher=Taylor and Francis|location=Hoboken|isbn=978-1-134-10283-9|page=172}}</ref> publishers of ''shōnen'' manga may create "homoerotic-themed" merchandise as fan service to their BL fans.<ref>McHarry, Mark (2011). [http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/257/250 (Un)gendering the homoerotic body: Imagining subjects in boys' love and yaoi] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120121030404/http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/257/250 |date=21 January 2012 }} Transformative Works and Cultures</ref> BL fans may "ship" any male–male pairing, sometimes pairing off a favourite character, or create a story about two original male characters and incorporate established characters into the story.<ref name="pedagogy"/> Any male character may become the subject of a BL ''dōjinshi'', including characters from non-manga titles such as ''The Lord of the Rings'',<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Granick |first1=Jennifer |title=Harry Potter Loves Malfoy |url=https://www.wired.com/politics/law/commentary/circuitcourt/2006/08/71597?currentPage=all |magazine=Wired |access-date=13 November 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121113061243/http://www.wired.com/politics/law/commentary/circuitcourt/2006/08/71597?currentPage=all |archive-date=13 November 2012 |date=16 August 2006}}</ref> video games such as ''Final Fantasy'',<ref>{{cite journal|title=Heavy Hero or Digital Dummy? Multimodal Player–Avatar Relations in Final Fantasy 7 |journal=Visual Communication |volume=3 |issue=2 |pages=213–233 |doi=10.1177/147035704043041 |year=2004 |last1=Burn |first1=Andrew |last2=Schott |first2=Gareth |s2cid=145456400 |url=http://eprints.ioe.ac.uk/4250/1/Burn_2004_Heavy_Hero_or_Digital_Dummy.pdf |access-date=18 December 2018 |url-status=deviated |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170808074749/http://eprints.ioe.ac.uk/4250/1/Burn_2004_Heavy_Hero_or_Digital_Dummy.pdf|archive-date=8 August 2017}}{{cbignore}}</ref> or real people such as actors and politicians. Amateur authors may also create characters out of personifications of abstract concepts (as in the personification of countries in ''Hetalia: Axis Powers'') or complementary objects like salt and pepper.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Galbraith |first1=Patrick |title=Moe: Exploring Virtual Potential in Post-Millennial Japan |journal=Electronic Journal of Contemporary Japanese Studies |date=31 October 2009 |url=http://www.japanesestudies.org.uk/articles/2009/Galbraith.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141021030033/http://www.japanesestudies.org.uk/articles/2009/Galbraith.html |archive-date=21 October 2014 }}</ref> In Japan, the labelling of BL ''dōjinshi'' is typically composed of the two lead characters' names, separated by a multiplication sign, with the ''seme'' being first and the ''uke'' being second.<ref name="Sagawa interview">{{cite web |last1=Toku |first1=Masami N |title=Interview with Mr. Sagawa |url=http://www.csuchico.edu/~mtoku/vc/interviews_full/Interview%20wi_%20Sagawa.html |website=California State University, Chico |access-date=11 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110926205655/http://www.csuchico.edu/~mtoku/vc/interviews_full/Interview%20wi_%20Sagawa.html |archive-date=26 September 2011 |date=6 June 2002}}</ref>
Outside of Japan, the 2000 broadcast of ''Mobile Suit Gundam Wing'' in North America on Cartoon Network is noted as crucial to the development of Western BL fan works, particularly fan fiction.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=McHarry |first1=Mark |editor1-last=Peele |editor1-first=THomas |title=Identity Unmoored: Yaoi in the West |journal=Queer Popular Culture: Literature, Media, Film and Television |date=2007 |page=193 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=New York}}</ref> As BL fan fiction is often compared to the Western fan practice of slash, it is important to understand the subtle differences between them. Levi notes that "the youthful teen look that so easily translates into androgyny in boys' love manga, and allows for so many layered interpretations of sex and gender, is much harder for slash writers to achieve."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Levi |first1=Antonia |title=Boy's Love Manga: Essays on the Sexual Ambiguity and Cross-Cultural Fandom of the Genre |date=2008 |publisher=McFarland & Company, Inc. Publishers |location=North Carolina |page=3}}</ref>
===English-language publishing=== [[File:Yaoi Books by miyagawa.jpg|thumb|left|Shelves of BL books and magazines at Books Kinokuniya in San Francisco in 2009]] The first officially licensed English-language translations of {{Transliteration|ja|yaoi}} manga were published in the North American market in 2003. By 2006, there were roughly 130 English-translated {{Transliteration|ja|yaoi}} works commercially available,<ref name="bonking"/> and by 2007, over 10 publishers in North America published {{Transliteration|ja|yaoi}}.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Butcher |first1=Christopher |title=Queer love manga style |url=http://dailyxtra.com/toronto/arts-and-entertainment/queer-love-manga-style-9165 |website=Daily Xtra |access-date=4 December 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141204194423/http://dailyxtra.com/toronto/arts-and-entertainment/queer-love-manga-style-9165 |archive-date=4 December 2014 |date=10 December 2007}}</ref> Notable English-language publishers of BL include Viz Media under their SuBLime imprint, Digital Manga Publishing under their 801 Media and Juné imprints, Media Blasters under their Kitty Media imprint, Seven Seas Entertainment, and Tokyopop.<ref name="Drawn Together"/><ref>{{cite web |last1=Cha |first1=Kai-Ming |title=Media Blasters Drops Shonen; Adds Yaoi |url=http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/new-titles/adult-announcements/article/1918-media-blasters-drops-shonen-adds-yaoi-.html |website=Publishers Weekly |access-date=10 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120924100133/http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/new-titles/adult-announcements/article/1918-media-blasters-drops-shonen-adds-yaoi-.html |archive-date=24 September 2012 |date=13 March 2007}}</ref> Notable defunct English-language publishers of BL include Central Park Media under their Be Beautiful imprint, Broccoli under their Boysenberry imprint, and Aurora Publishing under their Deux Press imprint.<ref name = Boston/>
Among the 135 {{Transliteration|ja|yaoi}} manga published in North America between 2003 and 2006, 14% were rated for readers aged 13 years or over, 39% were rated for readers aged 15 or older, and 47% were rated for readers age 18 and up.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = McLelland | first1 = Mark | last2 = Yoo | first2 = Seunghyun | year = 2007 | title = The International Yaoi Boys' Love Fandom and the Regulation of Virtual Child Pornography: The Implications of Current Legislation | url = http://ro.uow.edu.au/artspapers/192/ | journal = Sexuality Research and Social Policy | volume = 4 | issue = 1 | pages = 93–104 | doi = 10.1525/srsp.2007.4.1.93 | s2cid = 142674472 | access-date = 10 February 2012 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180827004813/http://ro.uow.edu.au/artspapers/192/ | archive-date = 27 August 2018 | url-access = subscription }}</ref> Restrictions among American booksellers often led publishers to label books conservatively, often rating books originally intended for a mid-teen readership as 18+ and distributing them in shrinkwrap.<ref name="Pagliassotti BL West"/> Diamond Comic Distributors valued the sales of {{Transliteration|ja|yaoi}} manga in the United States at approximately US$6 million in 2007.<ref name="10 August 2008">{{cite web |last1=Cha |first1=Kai-Ming |title=Brokeback comics craze |url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/08/RVR110R7D9.DTL&type=books |website=San Francisco Chronicle |date=10 August 2008 |access-date=18 October 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111018170605/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fc%2Fa%2F2008%2F08%2F08%2FRVR110R7D9.DTL&type=books |archive-date=18 October 2011}}</ref>
Marketing was significant in the transnational travel of BL from Japan to the United States, and led to BL to attract a following of LGBTQ fans in the United States. The 1994 original video animation adaptation of ''Kizuna: Bonds of Love'' was distributed by Ariztical Entertainment, which specializes in LGBT cinema and marketed the title as "the first gay male anime to be released on DVD in the US."<ref>{{cite web |title=About Us |url=https://www.ariztical.com/corporate/about.html |website=Ariztical Entertainment |access-date=10 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201109021652/https://www.ariztical.com/corporate/about.html |archive-date=9 November 2020}}</ref> The film was reviewed in the American LGBT magazine ''The Advocate'', which compared the film to gay art house cinema.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Che |first1=Cathay |title=Catoon Comes Out: Kizuna Volume 1 and 2 |journal=The Advocate |date=4 February 1997 |issue=726 |page=66}}</ref>
A large portion of Western fans choose to pirate BL material because they are unable or unwilling to obtain it through sanctioned methods. Scanlations and other fan translation efforts of both commercially published Japanese works and amateur ''dojinshi'' are common.<ref name="Wood2011">{{cite book|last=Wood|first=Andrea|title=Over the Rainbow: Queer Children's and Young Adult Literature|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fsWV-TAoJXEC&pg=PA354|year=2011|publisher=University of Michigan Press|isbn=978-0-472-07146-3|pages=354–379|chapter=Choose Your Own Queer Erotic Adventure: Young Adults, Boy's Love Computer Games, and the Sexual Politics of Visual Play|editor1-first=Kenneth B.|editor1-last=Kidd|editor2-first=Michelle Ann|editor2-last=Abate|access-date=22 December 2015|archive-date=2 February 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230202135135/https://books.google.com/books?id=fsWV-TAoJXEC&pg=PA354|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Glasspool |first1=Lucy Hannah |title=Simulation and database society in Japanese roleplaying-game fandoms: Reading boys' love dojinshi online |journal=Transformative Works and Cultures |date=2013 |volume=12 |issue=12 |url=http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/433/360 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141214112947/http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/433/360 |archive-date=14 December 2014|doi=10.3983/twc.2013.0433|doi-access=free }}</ref>
====Original English-language {{Transliteration|ja|yaoi}}==== When {{Transliteration|ja|yaoi}} initially gained popularity in the United States in the early 2000s, several American artists began creating original English-language manga for female readers featuring male–male couples referred to as "American {{Transliteration|ja|yaoi}}". The first known commercially published original English-language {{Transliteration|ja|yaoi}} comic is ''Sexual Espionage #1'' by Daria McGrain, published by Sin Factory in May 2002.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Pagliassotti |first1=Dru |author-link1=Dru Pagliassotti |title=Yaoi Timeline: Spread Through U.S. |url=http://ashenwings.com/marks/2008/06/02/yaoi-timeline-spread-through-us/ |website=The Mark of Ashen Wings |access-date=24 June 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080624064813/http://ashenwings.com/marks/2008/06/02/yaoi-timeline-spread-through-us/ |archive-date=24 June 2008 |url-status=usurped |date=2 June 2008}}</ref> As international artists began creating {{Transliteration|ja|yaoi}} works, the term "American {{Transliteration|ja|yaoi}}" fell out of use and was replaced by terms like "original English language {{Transliteration|ja|yaoi}}",<ref>{{cite web|last=Arrant|first=Chris|date=6 June 2006|title=Home-Grown Boys' Love from Yaoi Press|url=http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6341172.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060616051704/http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6341172.html |archive-date=16 June 2006 }}</ref> "global {{Transliteration|ja|yaoi}}", and "global BL".<ref>{{cite web|date=29 October 2007|title=Links to Yaoi-Con coverage|website=Icarus Publishing|url=http://www.icaruscomics.com/wp_web/?p=938 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111017162822/http://www.icaruscomics.com/wp_web/?p=938 |archive-date=17 October 2011 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|date=April 2008|title=German Publisher Licenses Global BL Titles|website=ComiPress|url=http://comipress.com/news/2008/04/18/3508|access-date=14 July 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110623233127/http://comipress.com/news/2008/04/18/3508|archive-date=23 June 2011}}</ref> The majority of publishers creating original English-language {{Transliteration|ja|yaoi}} manga are now defunct, including Yaoi Press,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/press-release/2007-01-08/yaoi-press-moves-stores-and-opens-doors|title=Yaoi Press Moves Stores and Opens Doors|website=Anime News Network|access-date=13 July 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071109123131/http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/press-release/2007-01-08/yaoi-press-moves-stores-and-opens-doors|archive-date=9 November 2007|url-status=live}}</ref> DramaQueen,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/press-release/2006-08-07/dramaqueen-announces-new-yaoi-and-manhwa-titles|title=DramaQueen Announces New Yaoi & Manhwa Titles|website=Anime News Network|access-date=13 July 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070820053300/http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/press-release/2006-08-07/dramaqueen-announces-new-yaoi-and-manhwa-titles|archive-date=20 August 2007|url-status=live}}</ref> and Iris Print.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Cha |first1=Kai-Ming|url=http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/new-titles/adult-announcements/article/1634-a-year-of-yaoi-at-iris-print-.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110616183339/http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/new-titles/adult-announcements/article/1634-a-year-of-yaoi-at-iris-print-.html|archive-date=16 June 2011|title=A Year of Yaoi At Iris Print|website=Publishers Weekly|access-date =13 March 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/12751.html|website=ICv2|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140305125734/http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/12751.html|title=Iris Print Wilts|access-date =17 June 2008|archive-date=5 March 2014}}</ref> Digital Manga Publishing last published original English-language {{Transliteration|ja|yaoi}} manga in 2012;<ref>{{cite web|last1=Lissa |first1=Pattillo |url=http://www.kuriousity.ca/2012/02/sleepless-nights-in-these-words-new-bl-titles-scheduled-for-print/|title=Sleepless Nights, In These Words – New BL Titles Scheduled For Print|website=Kuriosity|access-date=2 February 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120918211601/http://www.kuriousity.ca/2012/02/sleepless-nights-in-these-words-new-bl-titles-scheduled-for-print/|archive-date=18 September 2012}}</ref> outside of the United States, German publisher Carlsen Manga also published original {{Transliteration|ja|yaoi}} works.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.carlsen.de/web/manga/buecher_von?aid=158478|title=Anne Delseit, Martina Peters|website=Carlsen |access-date=25 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120404071258/http://www.carlsen.de/web/manga/buecher_von?aid=158478|archive-date=4 April 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Malone|first=Paul M.|date=April 2009|title=Home-grown ''Shōjo Manga'' and the Rise of Boys' Love among Germany's 'Forty-Niners'|journal=Intersections: Gender and Sexuality in Asia and the Pacific|volume=20|url=http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue20/malone.htm|access-date=10 February 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120301025107/http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue20/malone.htm|archive-date=1 March 2012}}</ref>
=== Audio dramas === thumb|''Tsuzumigafuchi'', the first ''yaoi'' audio drama, was released on cassette in 1988.
BL audio dramas, occasionally referred to as "drama CDs", "sound dramas", or "BLCDs", are recorded voice performances of male–male romance scenarios performed by primarily male voice actors. They are typically adaptations of original BL manga and novels.{{Sfn|Suzuki|2015|p=93}} The first BL audio dramas were released in the 1980s, beginning with ''Tsuzumigafuchi'' in 1988, which was published as a "''June'' cassette".<ref name=":3">{{Citation |last=Ishida |first=Minori |title=Sounds and Sighs: "Voice Porn" for Women |date=2019 |work=Shōjo Across Media: Exploring "Girl" Practices in Contemporary Japan |series=East Asian Popular Culture |pages=286, 295 |editor-last=Berndt |editor-first=Jaqueline |place=Cham |publisher=Springer International Publishing |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-3-030-01485-8_12 |isbn=978-3-030-01485-8 |s2cid=155381795 |editor2-last=Nagaike |editor2-first=Kazumi |editor3-last=Ogi |editor3-first=Fusami }}</ref> BL audio dramas proliferated beginning in the 1990s with the rise in popularity of compact discs, peaking at 289 total CDs released in 2008, which dropped to 108 CDs in 2013.<ref name=":3" />
===Live-action television and film=== {{main|List of BL dramas}}
====Japan==== While Japanese BL manga has been adapted into live-action films and television dramas since the early 2000s, these works were marketed towards a niche audience of BL fans rather than towards a general audience.<ref name="PostSeven"/> When these works were adapted for a general audience, same-sex romance elements were typically downplayed or removed entirely, as in the live-action television adaption of ''Antique Bakery'' that aired on Fuji TV in 2001.<ref name="pixivision 2019-07-09"/> The development of Japanese live-action television dramas that focus on BL and same-sex romance themes explicitly was spurred by the critical and commercial success of the TV Asahi television drama ''Ossan's Love'' (2016), which features an all-male love triangle as its central plot conceit.<ref name="Nippon.com"/> While ''Ossan's Love'' is an original series, it influenced the creation of live-action BL works adapted from manga that are marketed towards mass audiences; notable examples include the television dramas ''{{ill|Pornographer (manga){{!}}The Novelist|ja|ポルノグラファー}}'' (2018) on Fuji TV, ''What Did You Eat Yesterday?'' (2019) on TV Tokyo,{{efn|While ''What Did You Eat Yesterday?'' is not a BL series, it is often discussed in the context of live-action BL media as it focuses on a gay male couple and series creator Fumi Yoshinaga has authored multiple BL and BL-influenced works, notably ''Antique Bakery''.<ref name="Nippon.com"/>}} ''Cherry Magic'' (2020) on TV Tokyo, and the live-action film adaptation of ''The Cornered Mouse Dreams of Cheese'' (2020).<ref name="PostSeven">{{cite web |title=男性同士の恋愛描く「BL」作品がメジャー化した理由 |url=https://www.news-postseven.com/archives/20201004_1600668.html?DETAIL |website=News Post Seven |access-date=5 January 2021 |language=Japanese |date=4 October 2020 |archive-date=5 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210105060653/https://www.news-postseven.com/archives/20201004_1600668.html?DETAIL |url-status=live }}</ref>
In 2020, the BL market was worth {{USD|1.85 million}} in Japan.<ref name="variety 2024-04-03">{{cite web | first=Patrick | last=Frater | url=https://variety.com/2024/tv/asia/bl-series-at-25-00-in-akasaka-tv-tokyo-gagaoolala-1235958740/ | title=Japan-Taiwan BL Series 'At 25.00 in Akasaka' Set by TV Tokyo and GagaOOLala | work=Variety | date=2024-04-03 | access-date=2025-05-04}}</ref> In 2022, Kadokawa Corporation employee Kaoru Azuma established Tunku, Kadokawa's label for publishing live-action BL drama series, partnering with MBS TV to create the programming block Drama Shower.<ref name="pixivision 2022-07-15">{{cite news | first=Mikikaze | last=Komatsu | url=https://www.pixivision.net/en/a/7876 | title=Giving Back to the BL Genre! Behind the Scenes of KADOKAWA's Live-action BL Drama Studio "Tunku" | work=Pixivision | date=2022-07-15 | access-date=2022-12-23 | archive-date=2 February 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230202135136/https://www.pixivision.net/en/a/7876 | url-status=live }}</ref> The label was created to promote Japanese BL dramas based on existing BL novels and manga due to the growing popularity of BL caused by ''Ossan's Love''.<ref name="pixivision 2022-07-15"/> While creating Tunku, Azuma stated that she noticed that prejudice against boys' love has dwindled, and that many people have seemed to accept the genre as "normal".<ref name="pixivision 2022-07-15"/>
====Thailand==== The Thai romantic drama film ''Love of Siam'' (2007), which features a gay male romance storyline, found unexpected mainstream success upon its release and grossed over TH฿40 million at the box office.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Watson |first1=Joey |last2=Jirik |first2=Kim |title=Boys' love: The unstoppable rise of same-sex soapies in Thailand |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-16/boys-love-same-sex-dramas-in-thailand/9874766 |access-date=20 Jun 2018 |publisher=ABC News Australia}}</ref> This was followed by ''Love Sick'' (2014–2015), the first Thai television series to feature two gay characters as the lead roles.<ref name="TimeOutThai"/> Cultural anthropologist Thomas Baudinette argues that ''Love Sick'' represented a "watershed moment" in the depiction of queer romance in Thai media, exploring how the series adapted tropes from Japanese BL to create a new genre of media.<ref name=":0" /> While Japanese BL manga attracted an audience in Thailand as early as the 1990s,<ref name="ThaiAudience">{{cite web |last1=Keenapan |first1=Nattha |date=31 August 2001 |title=Japanese 'boy-love' comics a hit among Thais |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0WDP/is_2001_Sept_3/ai_78783534/?tag=content;col1 |access-date=9 November 2020 |website=Japan Today |publisher=CBS Business Network Resource Library}}</ref>{{New archival link needed|date=April 2026}} the success of ''Love of Siam'' and ''Love Sick'' kickstarted the production of domestic BL dramas: between 2014 and 2020, 57 television series in the BL genre were produced and released in Thailand.<ref name="SCMPThailand">{{cite web |last1=Nugroho |first1=Johannes |title=Thailand's erotic Boys Love TV dramas are a hit with Indonesians, gay and straight |url=https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/3104852/thailands-erotic-boys-love-tv-dramas-are-hit |website=South China Morning Post |access-date=17 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201011060717/https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/3104852/thailands-erotic-boys-love-tv-dramas-are-hit |archive-date=11 October 2020 |date=11 October 2020}}</ref>
Major producers of Thai BL include GMMTV, a subsidiary of GMM Grammy, which has produced ''2gether: The Series'' (2020), ''A Tale of Thousand Stars'' (2021), ''SOTUS'' (2016–2017), ''Dark Blue Kiss'' (2019), and ''Theory of Love'' (2019);<ref name="Vice">{{cite web |last1=de Guzman |first1=Chad |title=Boys' Love: The Gay Romance TV Genre Taking Over Southeast Asia |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/boys-love-tv-asia-trend-lgbtq-2gether/ |website=Vice |access-date=10 November 2020 |date=16 June 2020 |archive-date=8 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201008155801/https://www.vice.com/en/article/qj4k55/boys-love-tv-asia-trend-lgbtq-2gether |url-status=live }}</ref> and Line Corporation, which produces BL dramas in Thailand for distribution on its Line TV platform.<ref name="Nikkei"/> The genre has seen some backlash from conservative elements in Thai society: in 2020, the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission introduced new guidelines around material containing "sexually explicit or suggestive" scenes, while public broadcaster MCOT cancelled the BL series ''Love by Chance'' in 2018.<ref name="ABCNews"/> Thai BL dramas are noted as having gained popularity in Indonesia, where LGBT representation in domestic television is less common;<ref name="SCMPThailand"/> as well as in the Philippines, where many fans view BL as an originally Thai form of popular culture.<ref name=":1" /> The coming-of-age BL series, ''I Told Sunset About You'' (2020) was awarded by the Seoul International Drama Awards as the International Drama of the Year in 2021.<ref>{{cite web |title=Seoul International Drama Awards 2021 Winners |url=http://www.seouldrama.org/eng/bbs/board.php?bo_table=webzine&wr_id=113 |website=Seoul International Drama Awards |access-date=21 October 2022}}</ref> It has been suggested that BL dramas could become a source of Thai cultural soft power in Southeast Asia and beyond.<ref name="TimeOutThai">{{cite web |last1=Koaysomboon |first1=Top |title=Everything you need to know about Thailand's thriving Boys Love culture |url=https://www.timeout.com/bangkok/lgbtq/thai-boys-love-culture |website=Time Out Thailand |access-date=17 November 2020 |date=11 June 2020 |archive-date=31 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201031100728/https://www.timeout.com/bangkok/lgbtq/thai-boys-love-culture |url-status=live }}</ref>
====China==== There are no specific censorship policies in China concerning depictions of LGBT subject material in media; nevertheless, ''Variety'' reports that such material is "deemed sensitive and is inconsistently but regularly removed" from distribution.<ref name="VarietyChina">{{cite web |last1=Davis |first1=Rebecca |title=China's Gay Rights Stance Can't Derail Demand for LGBT Films |url=https://variety.com/2020/film/asia/lgbt-movies-china-gay-rights-1234625634/ |website=Variety |access-date=10 November 2020 |date=5 June 2020 |archive-date=30 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201030135626/https://variety.com/2020/film/asia/lgbt-movies-china-gay-rights-1234625634/ |url-status=live }}</ref> ''Addicted'' (2016), the first Chinese BL web series, accumulated 10 million views before being pulled from the streaming platform iQiyi.<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Campbell |first1=Charlie |title=Censors Pull Gay Drama 'Addiction', Sparking Outcry |url=https://time.com/4236864/china-gay-drama-homosexuality/ |magazine=Time |access-date=10 November 2020 |date=25 February 2016 |archive-date=14 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200814034624/https://time.com/4236864/china-gay-drama-homosexuality/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Vice"/> In reaction to state censorship, Chinese BL works typically depict male–male romance as homoerotic subtext: the web novel ''Guardian'' (2012) depicted a romance between its two male lead characters, though when it was adapted into a television drama on the streaming platform Youku in 2018, the relationship was rendered as a close, homoerotic friendship.<ref name="GuardianChina">{{cite web |last1=Zhang |first1=Phoebe |title=Gay-themed drama is latest victim of China's drive to purge 'harmful and obscene' content from web |url=https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2158196/gay-themed-drama-latest-victim-chinas-drive-purge-harmful-and |website=South China Morning Post |access-date=24 June 2019 |date=4 August 2018 |archive-date=24 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190624224028/https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2158196/gay-themed-drama-latest-victim-chinas-drive-purge-harmful-and |url-status=live }}</ref> The 2015 BL ''xianxia'' novel ''Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation'' was adapted into an animated series in 2018 and a live-action series in 2019, both of which similarly revise the nature of the relationship between the lead male characters. Consequently, fans of both ''Guardian'' and ''The Untamed'' discussed the series' male homoerotic content under the hashtag "socialist brotherhood" or "socialist bromance" to avoid detection from state censors.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ge |first=Liang |date=2022 |title=Dual ambivalence: The Untamed Girls as a counterpublic |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/01634437221104713 |journal=Media, Culture & Society |language=en |volume=44 |issue=5 |pages=1021–1033 |doi=10.1177/01634437221104713 |issn=0163-4437}}</ref>
====Other countries====
In South Korea, the web series ''Where Your Eyes Linger'' launched as the first domestically produced BL series in 2020.<ref>{{cite web|last=Son|first=Jin-ah|url=https://entertain.naver.com/read?oid=410&aid=0000685897|title=BL 웹드라마 '너의 시선이 머무는 곳에' 제작…한기찬·장의수 캐스팅(공식)|date=April 20, 2020|website=MK Sports|publisher=Naver|access-date=June 13, 2020|language=ko}}</ref> The BL genre didn't receive much traction in the country until 2022, when the series ''Semantic Error'' achieved a major domestic success and became a social phenomenon in South Korea.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-11-17 |title=韓国で社会現象を巻き起こしたBLドラマの劇場版『セマンティックエラー・ザ・ムービー』、2部作で… |trans-title=The theatrical version of the BL drama that caused a social phenomenon in South Korea, ''Semantic Error the Movie'', is a two-part movie. |url=https://portalfield.com/news/culture/5652841 |access-date=2023-12-11 |website=PORTALFIELD News |language=ja |archive-date=11 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231211034907/https://portalfield.com/news/culture/5652841 }}</ref> The unexpected success of the series introduced the BL genre to the mainstream South Korean audience, which subsequently resulted in a rising production of South Korean BL dramas and films.<ref>{{Cite web |last=이유나 |date=2022-04-21 |title=[Y초점] '시멘틱에러'의 놀라운 성공...OTT 타고 날개 돋힌 BL 신드롬 |trans-title=The surprising success of 'Semantic Error'... BL syndrome spreads through OTT|url=https://m.ytn.co.kr/news_view.amp.php?param=0117_202204211043161788 |access-date=2024-05-30 |website=YTN |language=ko}}</ref>
In Taiwan, the BL anthology series ''HIStory'' premiered in 2017.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Teng|first1=Yong Ping|title=Love is love, says the cast of BL drama, HIStory 4: Close To You|url=https://sg.news.yahoo.com/love-is-love-says-the-cast-of-bl-drama-history-4-close-to-you-064749633.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAG086cFprXLmFtq3ZgHLvf3Di7i7qsVGHUBPg7tP2-rYmm7NZeGTkiKjC9UqqD6nXnP-iDS8ngG5j2Cnq54BuR1nmLBAJQYqPc7u93P9f1yO8E83zRcaQpQXmUDeDQ1_KszVFDDiM-6N6TGs4eA9rHcEXFLnqXLoK_AIuPFmYmXS|website=Yahoo! News Singapore|access-date=11 May 2021}}</ref>
In the Philippines, BL television dramas gained popularity through the broadcast of foreign BL dramas such as ''2gether'' and ''Where Your Eyes Linger''.<ref name="Philippines" /> This spurred the creation of domestically produced BL dramas, such as ''Gameboys'' (2020),<ref name="Philippines">{{cite news |title=Filipino BL digital series 'Gameboys' gets international love |url=https://interaksyon.philstar.com/hobbies-interests/2020/06/22/171225/filipino-bl-digital-series-gameboys-gets-international-love/ |website=The Philippine Star|access-date=20 June 2020}}</ref> ''Hello Stranger'' (2020),<ref>{{cite news |last1=Biong |first1=Ian |title=Boys' Love series 'Hello Stranger' starring Tony Labrusca, JC Alcantara to premiere next week |url=https://entertainment.inquirer.net/379817/bl-series-hello-stranger-starring-tony-labrusca-jc-alcantara-to-premiere-next-week |access-date=September 28, 2020 |newspaper=Philippine Daily Inquirer |date=June 19, 2020}}</ref> and ''Oh, Mando!'' (2020);<ref>{{cite news |title='Don't be afraid to be yourself': Trailer of BL series 'Oh, Mando!' released |url=https://news.abs-cbn.com/entertainment/10/28/20/dont-be-afraid-to-be-yourself-trailer-of-bl-series-oh-mando-released |access-date=October 30, 2020 |work=ABS-CBN News |date=October 28, 2020}}</ref> the 2020 film ''The Boy Foretold by the Stars'' billed itself as "the first Filipino BL movie".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Guno |first1=Niña |title=BL movie 'The Boy Foretold by the Stars' joins virtual MMFF |url=https://entertainment.inquirer.net/397468/bl-movie-the-boys-foretold-by-the-stars-joins-virtual-mmff |website=The Philippine Daily Inquirer|access-date=26 November 2020}}</ref>
The Canadian sports romance series Heated Rivalry has been considered as a western adaptation of BL. <ref>{{cite news |last1=Speed |first1=Jessica |title= How 'Heated Rivalry' fits into the history of Japanese 'boys' love'|url=https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2026/01/31/tv-streaming/boys-love-heated-rivalry/ |website=The Japan Times|access-date=3 March 2026}}</ref>
===Video games=== {{See also|List of boys' love anime and manga#Other media{{!}} List of boys' love video games}} BL video games typically consist of visual novels or ''eroge'' oriented around male–male couples. The first BL game to receive an officially licensed English-language release was ''Enzai: Falsely Accused'', published by JAST USA in 2006.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/press-release/2006-01-16/jast-usa-announces-first-boy's-love-pc-dating-game|title=JAST USA Announces First "Boy's Love" PC Dating-Game|date=16 January 2006|work=Anime News Network|access-date=2009-07-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171014050310/https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/press-release/2006-01-16/jast-usa-announces-first-boy%27s-love-pc-dating-game|archive-date=14 October 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> That same year, the company published ''Absolute Obedience'',<ref>{{cite web|url=http://comipress.com/press-release/2006/10/25/918|title=JAST USA Announces Adult PC Game "Absolute Obedience" Ships, Also Price Reduction|date=25 October 2006|publisher=ComiPress|access-date=2009-07-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090227174452/http://comipress.com/press-release/2006/10/25/918|archive-date=27 February 2009}}</ref> while Hirameki International licensed ''Animamundi''; the later game, although already nonexplicit, was censored for US release to achieve a "mature" rather than "adults only" ESRB rating, removing some of both the sexual and the violent content.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.boysonboysonfilm.com/games/animamundi.html|title=Anima Mundi: Dark Alchemist Review|last=Wiggle|publisher=Boys on Boys on Film|access-date=2009-07-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180624204225/http://www.boysonboysonfilm.com/games/animamundi.html|archive-date=24 June 2018|url-status=usurped}}</ref> Compared to BL manga, fewer BL games have been officially translated into English; the lack of interest by publishers in licensing further titles has been attributed to widespread copyright infringement of both licensed and unlicensed games.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.yaoipress.com/2008/08/yaoi-computer-games-nil.html |title=Yaoi Computer Games Nil |last=Abraham |first=Yamilla |date=22 August 2008 |publisher=Yaoi Press |access-date=2009-07-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081121024932/http://www.yaoipress.com/2008/08/yaoi-computer-games-nil.html |archive-date=21 November 2008 }}</ref>
==Demography== {{Main|Yaoi fandom}} Suzuki notes that "demographic analyses of BL media are underdeveloped and thus much needed in ''yaoi''/BL studies,"{{sfn|Suzuki|2015|p=115}} but acknowledges that "the overwhelming majority of BL readers are women."{{sfn|Suzuki|2015|p=115}} 80% of the BL audience is female,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Madill |first1=Anna |last2=Zhao |first2=Yao |date=2021-04-01 |title=Female-Oriented Male-Male Erotica: Comparison of the Engaged Anglophone Demographic and That of the Greater China Area |journal=Sexuality & Culture |language=en |volume=25 |issue=2 |pages=562–583 |doi=10.1007/s12119-020-09783-9 |s2cid=225114409 |issn=1936-4822 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Zhao |first1=Yao |last2=Madill |first2=Anna |date=2018-09-03 |title=The heteronormative frame in Chinese Yaoi: integrating female Chinese fan interviews with Sinophone and Anglophone survey data |journal=Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics |volume=9 |issue=5 |pages=435–457 |doi=10.1080/21504857.2018.1512508 |s2cid=191635597 |issn=2150-4857 }}</ref> while the membership of Yaoi-Con, a now-defunct American {{Transliteration|ja|yaoi}} convention, was 85% female.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Solomon |first1=Charles |title=Anime, mon amour: forget Pokemon--Japanese animation explodes with gay, lesbian, and trans themes. |url=https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Anime,+mon+amour:+forget+Pokemon--Japanese+animation+explodes+with...-a0110809191 |website=The Advocate |access-date=9 November 2020 |date=14 October 2003 |archive-date=13 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201013193947/https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Anime,+mon+amour:+forget+Pokemon--Japanese+animation+explodes+with...-a0110809191 |url-status=live }}</ref> It is usually assumed that all female fans are heterosexual, but in Japan there is a presence of lesbian manga authors<ref name="Yaoi Debate"/> and lesbian, bisexual or questioning female readers.<ref name="Bent">{{cite journal | last1 = Welker | first1 = James | year = 2006 | title = Beautiful, Borrowed, and Bent: "Boys' Love" as Girls' Love in Shôjo Manga | journal = Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society | volume = 31 | issue = 3| page = 3 | doi = 10.1086/498987| s2cid = 144888475 }}</ref> A 2008 survey of English-speaking readers of BL indicated that 50%–60% of female readers self-identify as heterosexual.<ref name="Levi">{{Cite book | first = Levi | last = Antonia | editor-last = West | editor-first = Mark | contribution = North American reactions to Yaoi | title = The Japanification of Children's Popular Culture | year = 2008 | pages = 147–174 | publisher = Rowman & Littlefield | isbn = 978-0-8108-5121-4}}</ref>
Although the genre is marketed to and consumed primarily by girls and women, there is a gay,<ref name="bonking"/> bisexual,<ref name="Yoo"/> and heterosexual male<ref name="mon amour"/><ref>{{cite journal|last=Boon|first=Miriam|url=http://www.xtra.ca/public/viewstory.aspx?AFF_TYPE=3&STORY_ID=3062&PUB_TEMPLATE_ID=2|title=Anime North's bent offerings|date=24 May 2007|journal=Xtra!|access-date=23 April 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080315223544/http://www.xtra.ca/public/viewstory.aspx?AFF_TYPE=3&STORY_ID=3062&PUB_TEMPLATE_ID=2|archive-date=15 March 2008}}</ref>{{sfn|McLelland|2000|p=249}} readership as well. A 2007 survey of BL readers among patrons of a United States library found about one quarter of respondents were male;<ref name="Brenner">{{cite book | last = Brenner | first = Robin E. | title = Understanding Manga and Anime | publisher = Libraries Unlimited | year = 2007 | page = 137 | isbn = 978-1-59158-332-5}}</ref> two online surveys found approximately 10% of the broader English-speaking BL readership were male.<ref name="Pagliassotti BL West"/><ref name="Levi"/> Lunsing suggests that younger Japanese gay men who are offended by "pornographic" content in gay men's magazines may prefer to read BL instead.<ref>{{cite book|last=Lunsing|first=Wim|title= Beyond Common Sense: Sexuality and Gender in Contemporary Japan |publisher=Kegan Paul International|location= London and New York|year=2001|isbn=978-0-7103-0593-0}}</ref> Some gay men, however, are put off by the feminine art style or unrealistic depictions of LGBT culture in Japan and instead prefer gay manga,<ref name="Yaoi Debate"/> which some perceive to be more realistic.<ref name="pedagogy"/> Lunsing notes that some of the BL narrative elements criticized by homosexual men, such as rape fantasies, misogyny, and characters' non-identification as gay, are also present in gay manga.<ref name="Yaoi Debate"/>
In the mid-1990s, estimates of the size of the Japanese BL fandom ranged from 100,000 to 500,000 people.<ref name="Yaoi Debate"/> By April 2005, a search for non-Japanese websites resulted in 785,000 English, 49,000 Spanish, 22,400 Korean, 11,900 Italian, and 6,900 Chinese sites.{{sfn|McLelland|2005|p=14}} In January 2007, there were approximately five million hits for {{Transliteration|ja|yaoi}}.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.capstrans.edu.au/resources/events/2007/aior-oct-2007.pdf |title=Roundtable: The Internet and Women's Transnational "Boys' Love" Fandom |date=October 2007 |website=University of Wollongong: CAPSTRANS |access-date=28 November 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080721140810/http://www.capstrans.edu.au/resources/events/2007/aior-oct-2007.pdf |archive-date=21 July 2008 }}</ref>
Female fans of BL are often referred to as {{nihongo|''fujoshi''|腐女子||lit. "rotten girl"}}, a derogatory insult that was later reappropriated as a self-descriptive term.<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/462|title=The possibilities of research on "fujoshi" in Japan|first=Midori|last=Suzuki|journal=Transformative Works and Cultures|date=21 November 2012|volume=12|via=journal.transformativeworks.org|doi=10.3983/twc.2013.0462|doi-access=free|access-date=17 November 2020|archive-date=11 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201111104310/https://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/462|url-status=live}}</ref> The male equivalent is {{nihongo|''fudanshi''|腐男子||lit. "rotten boy"}} or {{nihongo|''fukei''|腐兄||"rotten older brother"}}, both of which are puns of similar construction to ''fujoshi''.<ref>{{Cite book | last1 = Ingulsrud | first1 = John E. | last2 = Allen | first2 = Kate | title = Reading Japan Cool: Patterns of Manga Literacy and Discourse | publisher = Rowman & Littlefield | year = 2009 | isbn = 978-0-7391-2753-7 | page = 57 }}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Nagaike |first=Kazumi |title=Fudanshi ("Rotten Boys") in Asia: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Male Readings of BL and Concepts of Masculinity |date=2019 |work=Women's Manga in Asia and Beyond: Uniting Different Cultures and Identities |series=Palgrave Studies in Comics and Graphic Novels |pages=69–84 |editor-last=Ogi |editor-first=Fusami |place=Cham |publisher=Springer International Publishing |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-97229-9_5 |isbn=978-3-319-97229-9 |s2cid=150944639 |editor2-last=Suter |editor2-first=Rebecca |editor3-last=Nagaike |editor3-first=Kazumi |editor4-last=Lent |editor4-first=John A. }}</ref>
==Analysis== ===Audience motivation=== Motivations for consuming BL media include liberation from heteropatriarchy,<ref>{{Cite thesis |last=Snyder |first=Rebecca |title=Feminism or homophobia: an analysis of discourse on female yaoi readers |url=https://soar.suny.edu/handle/20.500.12648/1337 |language=en-US}}</ref> idealised portrayal of relationships,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Liu |first=Yue |chapter=Analyzing the Reasons Causing the Trend of Yaoi in Japan |date=2021-12-24 |volume=615 |title=Proceedings of the 2021 4th International Conference on Humanities Education and Social Sciences (ICHESS 2021) |chapter-url=https://www.atlantis-press.com/proceedings/ichess-21/125966951 |language=en |publisher=Atlantis Press |pages=2573–2581 |doi=10.2991/assehr.k.211220.445 |isbn=978-94-6239-495-7}}</ref> 'pure' genderless love and pro-homosexual attitudes, identification or self-analysis, melodramatic or emotional elements, aversion to standard romances aimed at women, pure escapism, art and aesthetics, pure entertainment, and sexual excitement or titillation.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Zsila |first1=Ágnes |last2=Pagliassotti |first2=Dru |last3=Urbán |first3=Róbert |last4=Orosz |first4=Gábor |last5=Király |first5=Orsolya |last6=Demetrovics |first6=Zsolt |date=2018-06-14 |title=Loving the love of boys: Motives for consuming yaoi media |journal=PLOS ONE |language=en |volume=13 |issue=6 |article-number=e0198895 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0198895 |doi-access=free |issn=1932-6203 |pmc=6002055 |pmid=29902228 |bibcode=2018PLoSO..1398895Z }}</ref>
BL works, culture, and fandom have been studied and discussed by scholars and journalists worldwide, especially after translations of BL became commercially available outside Japan in the 21st century.{{sfn|Thorn|2004|p=169}} In ''Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics'', the 1983 book by Frederik L. Schodt that was the first substantial English-language work on manga, Schodt observes that portrayals of gay male relationships had used and further developed bisexual themes already extant in {{lang|ja-Latn|shōjo}} manga to appeal to their female audience.<ref name="Schodt83">{{cite book |last1=Schodt |first1=Frederik L. |title=Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics |date=1983 |publisher=Kodansha International |location=Tokyo and New York |isbn=0-87011-752-1 |pages=100–101}}</ref> Japanese critics have viewed BL as a genre that permits their audience to avoid adult female sexuality by distancing sex from their own bodies,<ref name="Ueno89">{{cite journal |last1=Ueno |first1=Chizuko |title=Jendaaresu waarudo no "ai" no jikken" ("Experimenting with "love" in a Genderless World") |journal=Kikan Toshi II (Quarterly City II) |date=1989 |publisher=Kawade Shobō Shinsha |location=Tokyo |isbn=4-309-90222-7}}</ref> as well as to create fluidity in perceptions of gender and sexuality and rejects "socially mandated" gender roles as a "first step toward feminism".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Takemiya |first1=Keiko |author-link1=Keiko Takemiya |title="Josei wa gei ga suki!?" (Women Like Gays!?) |journal=June |date=1993 |pages=82–83 |publisher=Bungei shunjū}}</ref> Kazuko Suzuki, for example, believes that the audience's aversion to or contempt for masculine heterosexism is something which has consciously emerged as a result of the genre's popularity.{{sfn|Suzuki|1999|p=246}}
Mizoguchi, writing in 2003, feels that BL is a "female-gendered space", as the writers, readers, artists and most of the editors of BL are female.<ref name=MizoguchiSubgenres/> BL has been compared to romance novels by English-speaking librarians.<ref name=yaoi101/><ref name="Romance by Any Other Name">{{cite journal |last=Brenner |first=Robin |date=15 September 2007 |title=Romance by Any Other Name |url=http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6477427.html |journal=Library Journal |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110607130508/http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6477427.html |archive-date=7 June 2011 |access-date=28 November 2014}}</ref> In 2004, Paul Gravett summarized the dominant theories for the popularity of BL with a female audience: that Japanese women were disillusioned or bored with classic male–female relationships in fiction, that the {{Transliteration|ja|bishōnen}} populating the genre were a backlash against male sex fantasies of a feminized ideal of adolescent girls, that the genre offered a safe space for sexual fantasies with the free choice of identification figure in the relationship, and that the male characters in BL are interpreted by female readers as girls, thus making the stories expressions of readers' same-sex fantasies.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gravett |first=Paul |title=Manga - Sechzig Jahre Japanische Comics |publisher=Egmont Manga und Anime |year=2004 |pages=13, 80f |language=de}}</ref>
Other commentators have suggested that more radical gender-political issues underlie BL. Parallels have been noted in the popularity of lesbianism in pornography,<ref name = revisited/><ref name=bonking/> and BL has been called a form of "female fetishism".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hashimoto |first1=Miyuki |title=Visual Kei Otaku Identity—An Intercultural Analysis |journal=Intercultural Communication Studies |date=2007 |volume=XVI |issue=1 |pages=87–99 |url=http://www.uri.edu/iaics/content/2007v16n1/10%20Miyuki%20Hashimoto.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110607051816/http://www.uri.edu/iaics/content/2007v16n1/10%20Miyuki%20Hashimoto.pdf |archive-date=7 June 2011 }}</ref> While early approaches to the popularity of the genre often referred to the role of women in patriarchal Japanese society, to which the genre offers a resistance and escape, this approach has been rejected by others who note that BL and BL-like media became popular outside of Japan in other social circumstances, such as slash fiction in the West. Against this background, theories emphasizing pleasure gained support: BL could be compared to pornography or even considered a specifically female form of pornography, appealing to desires for eroticism, voyeurism, or a desire to push against established gender roles.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Eckstein |first=Kristin |title=Shojo Manga Text-Bild-Verhältnisse und Narrationsstrategien im japanischen und deutschen Manga für Mädchen |publisher=Universitätsverlag Winter Heidelberg |year=2006 |isbn=978-3-8253-6538-7 |pages=42–45 |language=de}}</ref> Mariko Ōhara, a science fiction writer, has said that she wrote Kirk/Spock fiction as a teen because she could not enjoy "conventional pornography, which had been made for men", and that she had found a "limitless freedom" in BL, much like in science fiction.<ref>{{cite web |last1=McCaffery |first1=Larry |last2=Subda |first2=Gregory |last3=Kotani |first3=Mari |last4=Takayuki |first4=Tatsumi |title=The Twister of Imagination: An Interview with Mariko Ohara |url=http://www.centerforbookculture.org/review/02_2_inter/interview_Ohara.html |website=Center for Book Culture |access-date=10 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080209112923/http://www.centerforbookculture.org/review/02_2_inter/interview_Ohara.html |archive-date=9 February 2008}}</ref>
In 1998, Shihomi Sakakibara asserted that {{Transliteration|ja|yaoi}} fans, including himself, were gay transgender men.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sakakibara |first1=Shihomi |title=''Yaoi genron: yaoi kara mieta mono'' (An Elusive Theory of Yaoi: The view from Yaoi) |date=1998 |publisher=Natsume Shobo |location=Tokyo |isbn=4-931391-42-7}}</ref> Sandra Buckley believes that ''bishōnen'' narratives champion "the imagined potentialities of alternative [gender] differentiations",<ref name="Buckley">{{cite journal |last1=Buckley |first1=Sandra |editor1-last=Penley |editor1-first=C. |editor2-last=Ross |editor2-first=A |title='Penguin in Bondage': A Graphic Tale of Japanese Comic Books |journal=Technoculture |date=1991 |pages=163–196 |publisher=University of Minnesota |location=Minneapolis |isbn=0-8166-1932-8}}</ref> while James Welker described the ''bishōnen'' character as "queer", commenting that manga critic Akiko Mizoguchi saw ''shōnen-ai'' as playing a role in how she herself had become a lesbian.<ref name="Welker06">{{cite journal | last1 = Welker | first1 = James | year = 2006 | title = Beautiful, Borrowed, and Bent: 'Boys' Love' as Girls' Love in Shôjo Manga' | journal = Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society | volume = 31 | issue = 3| page = 843 | doi = 10.1086/498987| s2cid = 144888475 }}</ref> Dru Pagliassotti sees this and the ''yaoi ronsō'' as indicating that for Japanese gay and lesbian readers, BL is not as far removed from reality as heterosexual female readers like to claim.<ref name="Pagliassotti BL West"/> Welker has also written that boys' love titles liberate the female audience "not just from patriarchy, but from gender dualism and heteronormativity".<ref name="Welker06"/>
===Criticism=== Some gay and lesbian commentators have criticized how gay identity is portrayed in BL, most notably in the {{Transliteration|ja|yaoi ronsō}} or "{{Transliteration|ja|yaoi}} debate" of 1992–1997 (see History above).<ref name="Yaoi Debate"/><ref name="Mori Mari"/> A trope of BL that has attracted criticism is male protagonists who do not identify as gay, but are rather simply in love with each other, with Comiket co-founder Yoshihiro Yonezawa once describing BL ''dōjinshi'' as akin to "girls playing with dolls".<ref name = revisited/> This is said to heighten the theme of all-conquering love,<ref name="Akibayaoi"/> but is also condemned as a means of avoiding acknowledgement of homophobia.<ref name="Korean Fandom">{{cite web|url=http://moongsil.com/study/yaoi_eng.pdf |title=Reading YAOI Comics: An Analysis of Korean Girls' Fandom |last=Noh |first=Sueen |year=2002 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928081809/http://moongsil.com/study/yaoi_eng.pdf |archive-date=28 September 2007 }}</ref> Criticism of the stereotypically feminine behaviour of the ''uke'' has also been prominent.<ref name="girly uke"/>
Much of the criticism of BL originally rendered in the {{Transliteration|ja|yaoi ronsō}} has similarly been voiced in the English-language fandom.<ref name = "Yowie"/><ref>{{cite web |last1=Butcher |first1=Christopher |title=A Few Comments About The Gay/Yaoi Divide |url=http://comics212.net/older/2006_08_01_archive.shtml |website=Comics 212 |access-date=10 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081120024946/http://comics212.net/older/2006_08_01_archive.shtml |archive-date=20 November 2008 |date=18 August 2006}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Johnson |first1=M.J. |title=A Brief History of Yaoi |url=http://www.sequentialtart.com/archive/may02/ao_0502_4.shtml |website=Sequential Tart |access-date=25 December 2004 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041225051411/http://www.sequentialtart.com/archive/may02/ao_0502_4.shtml |archive-date=25 December 2004 |date=May 2002}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=McHarry |first1=Mark |editor1-last=Peele |editor1-first=Thomas |title=Identity Unmoored: Yaoi in the West |journal=Queer Popular Culture: Literature, Media, Film, and Television |date=2007 |pages=187–188 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=New York |isbn=978-1-4039-7490-7}}</ref> Rachel Thorn has suggested that BL and slash fiction fans are discontented with "the standards of femininity to which they are expected to adhere and a social environment that does not validate or sympathize with that discontent".{{sfn|Thorn|2004|p=180}}<ref name="Thorn1993">Thorn, Rachel. (1993) "Unlikely Explorers: Alternative Narratives of Love, Sex, Gender, and Friendship in Japanese Girls' Comics." New York Conference on Asian Studies, New Paltz, New York, 16 October 1993.</ref>
===Legal issues=== BL has been the subject of disputes on legal and moral grounds. Mark McLelland suggests that BL may become "a major battlefront for proponents and detractors of 'gender free' policies in employment, education and elsewhere",<ref name="acute">{{cite web |url=http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue20/mclelland.htm |title=Intersections: (A)cute Confusion: The Unpredictable Journey of Japanese Popular Culture |publisher=Intersections.anu.edu.au |access-date=8 September 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130420172943/http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue20/mclelland.htm |archive-date=20 April 2013 }}</ref> while BL artist Youka Nitta has said that "even in Japan, reading boys' love isn't something that parents encourage."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Cha |first1=Kai-Ming |title=Embracing Youka Nitta |url=http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6332853.html |website=Publishers Weekly |access-date=18 September 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080918083027/http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6332853.html |archive-date=18 September 2008 |date=9 May 2006}}</ref> In Thailand, the sale of unauthorized reproductions of ''shōnen-ai'' manga to teenagers in 2001 led to media coverage and a moral panic.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pilcher |first1=Tim |last2=Brooks |first2=Brad |title=The Essential Guide to World Comics |date=2005 |publisher=Collins & Brown |pages=124–125}}</ref> In 2006, an email campaign pressuring the Sakai City Central Library to remove BL works from circulation attracted national media attention, and promoted a debate over whether removal of BL works constituted a form of discrimination.<ref name="acute"/> In 2010, the Osaka Prefectural Government included boys' love manga among other books deemed potentially "harmful to minors" due to its sexual content,<ref>{{cite news | first=Egan | last=Loo | url=https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2010-04-04/osaka-considers-regulating-boys-love-materials | title=Osaka Considers Regulating Boys-Love Materials | work=Anime News Network | date=4 April 2020 | access-date=23 February 2020 | archive-date=25 February 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200225020205/https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2010-04-04/osaka-considers-regulating-boys-love-materials | url-status=live }}</ref> which resulted in several magazines prohibited from being sold to people under 18 years of age.<ref name="ann 2010-04-28">{{cite news | first=Egan | last=Loo | url=https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2010-04-28/osaka-posts-list-of-designated-harmful-boys-love-mags | title=Osaka Lists 8 Boys-Love Mags Designated as 'Harmful' (Updated) | work=Anime News Network | date=2010-04-28 | access-date=2020-02-23 | archive-date=27 January 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210127063831/https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2010-04-28/osaka-posts-list-of-designated-harmful-boys-love-mags | url-status=live }}</ref>
In the People's Republic of China under the general secretaryship of Xi Jinping, authors of ''danmei'' have been arrested and criminally prosecuted.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Wang |first=Vivian |date=2025-06-28 |title=Chinese Police Detain Dozens of Writers Over Gay Erotic Online Novels |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/28/world/asia/china-boys-love-women.html |access-date=2025-06-30 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=June 26, 2025 |title=Chinese cops are cuffing erotica |url=https://www.economist.com/china/2025/06/26/chinese-cops-are-cuffing-erotica |url-access=subscription |access-date=2025-06-30 |newspaper=The Economist |issn=0013-0613}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Mendelson |first=Allegra |date=2025-06-30 |title=China arrests 30 female writers over gay erotic fiction |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/06/30/china-gay-erotic-fiction-writers-arrests/ |access-date=2025-06-30 |work=The Daily Telegraph |language=en-GB |issn=0307-1235}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Yang |first=Mary |date=2025-07-12 |title=China's crackdown on gay erotica stifles rare outlet for LGBTQ expression |url=http://hongkongfp.com/2025/07/12/chinas-crackdown-on-gay-erotica-stifles-rare-outlet-for-lgbtq-expression/ |access-date=2025-07-14 |website=Hong Kong Free Press |language=en-GB |agency=Agence France-Presse}}</ref> Anhui TV reported that, at least 20 young female authors writing ''danmei'' novels on an online novel website were arrested in 2014.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNjkzNzgxMDA4.html|title=天天故事会：神秘写手落网记[超级新闻场]|website=v.youku.com|access-date=2018-12-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190515060654/https://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNjkzNzgxMDA4.html|archive-date=15 May 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> In 2018, the pseudonymous Chinese BL novel author Tianyi was sentenced to {{frac|10|1|2}} years in prison under laws prohibiting the production of "obscene material for profit".<ref>{{cite web |last1=Gan |first1=Nectar |title=Outcry as Chinese erotic writer jailed for more than 10 years over gay sex scenes in novel |url=https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/2173814/outcry-chinese-erotic-writer-jailed-more-10-years-over-gay-sex |website=South China Morning Post |access-date=10 November 2020 |date=18 November 2018 |archive-date=20 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181120142835/https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/2173814/outcry-chinese-erotic-writer-jailed-more-10-years-over-gay-sex |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bai |first=Meijiadai |date=2022-03-04 |title=Regulation of pornography and criminalization of BL readers and authors in contemporary China (2010–2019) |journal=Cultural Studies |volume=36 |issue=2 |pages=279–301 |doi=10.1080/09502386.2021.1912805 |s2cid=235527667 |issn=0950-2386 }}</ref> In August 2021, the BL-adapted show ''Word of Honor'' was banned.<ref name=":FandomNationalism">{{Cite book |last=Wang |first=Erika Ningxin |title=Fandom Nationalism: Participatory Censorship and Performative Patriotism in East Asia |last2=Huang |first2=Qian |date=2026 |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |others= |isbn=979-8-7651-2516-8 |edition= |series=Bloomsbury Fandom Primers Series |location=New York}}</ref>{{Reference page|page=40}} The National Radio Television Administration introduced further policies in January 2022 which resulted in the cancellation of all planned BL dramas.<ref name=":FandomNationalism" />{{Reference page|pages=40-41}}
Zanghellini notes that due to the "characteristics of the {{Transliteration|ja|yaoi}}/BL genre" of showing characters who are often underage engaging in romantic and sexual situations, child pornography laws in Australia and Canada "may lend themselves to targeting {{Transliteration|ja|yaoi}}/BL work". He notes that in the UK, cartoons are exempt from child pornography laws unless they are used for child grooming.<ref name="Zanghellini" />
==See also== {{Portal|Anime and manga|Japan|LGBTQ}} * {{Transliteration|ja|Yaoi}} hole * Yaoi paddle * Slash fiction * Glossary of anime and manga * Human-oriented sexualism * LGBT rights in Japan * Sexual minorities in Japan * Homosexuality in Japan * Pornography in Japan * Tokyo Metropolitan Ordinance Regarding the Healthy Development of Youths * ''Boys' Love Manga: Essays on the Sexual Ambiguity and Cross-Cultural Fandom of the Genre'' * Creek (fandom) * Yuri * Bara
==Notes== {{notelist}}
==References== <references> <ref name="aestheticism definitions">{{cite web|url=http://www.aestheticism.com/visitors/reference/jpnse_def/index.htm |title=Definitions From Japan: BL, Yaoi, June |work=aestheticism.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090605111837/http://www.aestheticism.com/visitors/reference/jpnse_def/index.htm |archive-date=5 June 2009}}</ref>
<ref name="Akibayaoi">{{cite web |last1=Lees |first1=Sharon |title=Yaoi and Boys' Love |url=http://www.akibaangels.com/articles/06_2006/yaoiandBL.php |website=Akiba Angels |access-date=2 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160102055333/http://www.akibaangels.com/articles/06_2006/yaoiandBL.php |archive-date=2 January 2016 |date=June 2006}}</ref>
<ref name="BLLAB">{{cite web|url=http://www.akibanana.com/?q=node/1670 |title=Simona's BL Research Lab: Reibun Ike, Hyogo Kijima, Inaki Matsumoto |last=Simona |date=May 13, 2009 |publisher=Akibanana |access-date=August 29, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091003103542/http://www.akibanana.com/?q=node%2F1670 |archive-date=October 3, 2009 }}</ref>
<ref name="Bollmann">{{cite journal |last1=Bollmann |first1=Tuuli |editor1-last=Niskanen |editor1-first=Eija |title=He-romance for her – yaoi, BL and shounen-ai |journal=Imaginary Japan: Japanese Fantasy in Contemporary Popular Culture |date=2010 |pages=42–46 |url=http://iipc.utu.fi/imaginaryjapan/Bollman.pdf |publisher=Interna-tional Institute for Popular Culture |location=Turku |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150319061151/http://iipc.utu.fi/imaginaryjapan/Bollman.pdf |archive-date=19 March 2015 }}</ref>
<ref name="bonking">{{cite journal |last1=McLelland |first1=Mark |title=Why are Japanese Girls' Comics full of Boys Bonking? |journal=Refractory: A Journal of Entertainment Media |date=2006–2007 |volume=10 |url=http://blogs.arts.unimelb.edu.au/refractory/2006/12/04/why-are-japanese-girls%E2%80%99-comics-full-of-boys-bonking1-mark-mclelland |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080415173709/http://blogs.arts.unimelb.edu.au/refractory/2006/12/04/why-are-japanese-girls%E2%80%99-comics-full-of-boys-bonking1-mark-mclelland/ |archive-date=15 April 2008 }}</ref>
<ref name="Boston">{{cite news |last1=Jones |first1=V.E. |title=He Loves Him, She Loves Them: Japanese comics about gay men are increasingly popular among women |url=http://archive.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2005/04/25/he_loves_him_she_loves_them/ |website=The Boston Globe |access-date=9 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070302105927/http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2005/04/25/he_loves_him_she_loves_them/ |archive-date=2 March 2007 |url-status=live |date=25 April 2005}}</ref>
<ref name="ChilChil">{{cite web |url= https://www.chil-chil.net/compNewsDetail/k/blnews/no/20066/ |title= 平成BL漫画の絵柄遍歴を描いてみた (in Japanese) |last= Matasaburo |first= Shimizu |date= April 29, 2019 |website= Chil Chil |access-date= July 20, 2019 |archive-date= 1 November 2020 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20201101035239/https://www.chil-chil.net/compNewsDetail/k/blnews/no/20066/ |url-status= live }}</ref>
<ref name="Drawn Together">{{cite web |last1=Strickland |first1=Elizabeth |title=Drawn Together |url=http://www.villagevoice.com/2006-10-31/news/drawn-together/full |website=The Village Voice |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090820094535/http://www.villagevoice.com/2006-10-31/news/drawn-together/full |archive-date=20 August 2009 |date=2 November 2006}}</ref>
<ref name="Galbraith 11">{{cite journal |last=Galbraith|first=Patrick W. |title=Fujoshi: Fantasy Play and Transgressive Intimacy among "Rotten Girls" in Contemporary Japan |journal=Signs |year=2011 |volume=37 |issue=1 |pages=211–232 |doi=10.1086/660182|s2cid=146718641 }}</ref>
<ref name="girly uke">{{cite web |last1=Keller |first1=Katherine |title=Seme and Uke? Make Me Puke |url=http://www.sequentialtart.com/article.php?id=864 |website=Sequential Tart |access-date=14 September 2012 |date=February 2008}}</ref>{{New archival link needed|date=April 2026}}
<ref name="Fletcher 2002">{{cite web |last1=Fletcher |first1=Dani |title=Guys on Guys for Girls – Yaoi and Shounen Ai |url=http://www.sequentialtart.com/archive/may02/ao_0502_1.shtml |website=Sequential Tart |access-date=26 December 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051226054723/http://www.sequentialtart.com/archive/may02/ao_0502_1.shtml |archive-date=26 December 2005 |date=May 2002}}</ref>
<ref name="Futekiya">{{cite web |title=BL vs Yaoi vs Shounen-ai |url=https://futekiya.com/bl-vs-yaoi-vs-shounen-ai/ |website=Futekiya |publisher=Dai Nippon Printing |access-date=10 November 2020 |date=11 April 2020 |archive-date=13 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201113090903/https://futekiya.com/bl-vs-yaoi-vs-shounen-ai/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
<ref name="June1">{{cite web |url= https://junemanga.com/blogs/news/what-is-yaoi-and-where-does-it-go-from-here |title= What is yaoi and where does it go from here? |last= Grace |first= Madison |date= January 24, 2017 |website= Juné Manga |access-date= July 20, 2019 |archive-date= 16 November 2020 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20201116110418/https://junemanga.com/blogs/news/what-is-yaoi-and-where-does-it-go-from-here |url-status= live }}</ref>
<ref name="June2">{{cite web |url= https://junemanga.com/blogs/news/yaoi-then-vs-now |title= Yaoi: then vs. now |last= Grace |first= Madison |date= March 27, 2017 |website= Juné Manga |access-date= July 20, 2019 |archive-date= 26 January 2021 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210126130337/https://junemanga.com/blogs/news/yaoi-then-vs-now |url-status= live }}</ref>
<ref name="Kinsella Otaku 1990s">{{cite journal |last1=Kinsella |first1=Sharon |title=Japanese Subculture in the 1990s: Otaku and the Amateur Manga Movement |journal=Journal of Japanese Studies |date=Summer 1998 |volume=24 |issue=2 |pages=289–316 |doi=10.2307/133236 |jstor=133236 |url=https://www.jstor.org/pss/133236|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
<ref name=MizoguchiSubgenres>{{cite journal | last1 = Akiko | first1 = Mizoguchi | year = 2003 | title = Male-Male Romance by and for Women in Japan: A History and the Subgenres of Yaoi Fictions | journal = U.S.-Japan Women's Journal | volume = 25 | pages = 49–75}}</ref>
<ref name="mon amour">{{cite journal| last=Solomon| first=Charles| url=http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Anime,+mon+amour:+forget+Pokemon--Japanese+animation+explodes+with...-a0110809191| title=Anime, mon amour: forget Pokémon—Japanese animation explodes with gay, lesbian, and trans themes| journal=The Advocate| date=14 October 2003| access-date=10 August 2012| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121010001455/http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Anime,+mon+amour:+forget+Pokemon--Japanese+animation+explodes+with...-a0110809191| archive-date=10 October 2012| url-status=live}}</ref>
<ref name="Mori Mari">{{cite journal |last1=Vincent |first1=Keith |title=A Japanese Electra and Her Queer Progen |journal=Mechademia |date=2007 |volume=2 |pages=64–79 |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/368281 |publisher=Project MUSE |doi=10.1353/mec.0.0000 |s2cid=120935717 |access-date=17 November 2020 |archive-date=30 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211130154524/https://muse.jhu.edu/article/368281 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref>
<ref name="Nagaike03">{{cite journal | last1 = Kazumi | first1 = Nagaike | year = 2003 | title = Perverse Sexualities, Perverse Desires: Representations of Female Fantasies and Yaoi Manga as Pornography Directed at Women | journal = U.S.-Japan Women's Journal | volume = 25 | pages = 76–103}}</ref>
<ref name="Nippon.com">{{cite web |last1=Fujimoto |first1=Yukari |author-link1=Yukari Fujimoto |title=The Evolution of "Boys' Love" Culture: Can BL Spark Social Change? |url=https://www.nippon.com/en/in-depth/d00607/ |website=Nippon.com |publisher=Nippon Communications Foundation |access-date=12 November 2020 |date=24 September 2020 |archive-date=10 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201110144411/https://www.nippon.com/en/in-depth/d00607/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
<ref name="Otaku Sexuality Foreword">Mari, Kotani, foreword to Saitō, Tamaki (2007). "Otaku Sexuality" in Christopher Bolton, Istvan Csicsery-Ronay Jr., and Takayuki Tatsumi ed., page 223 ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20110605115230/http://www.upress.umn.edu/Books/B/bolton_robot.html Robot Ghosts and Wired Dreams]'' University of Minnesota Press {{ISBN|978-0-8166-4974-7}}</ref>
<ref name="Pagliassotti BL West">{{cite journal |last1=Pagliassotti |first1=Dru |author-link1=Dru Pagliassotti |title=Reading Boys' Love in the West |journal=Particip@tions |date=November 2008 |volume=5 |issue=2 |url=http://www.participations.org/Volume%205/Issue%202/5_02_pagliassotti.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120801134251/http://www.participations.org/Volume%205/Issue%202/5_02_pagliassotti.htm |archive-date=1 August 2012 }}</ref>
<ref name="pedagogy">{{cite web |last1=Wilson |first1=Brent |last2=Toku |first2=Masami |title="Boys' Love", Yaoi, and Art Education: Issues of Power and Pedagogy |url=http://www.csuchico.edu/~mtoku/vc/Articles/toku/Wil_Toku_BoysLove.html |website=Visual Culture Research in Art and Education |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100610011015/http://www.csuchico.edu/~mtoku/vc/Articles/toku/Wil_Toku_BoysLove.html |archive-date=10 June 2010 |date=2003}}</ref>
<ref name="PLOS One 2018">{{cite journal |last1=Zsila |first1=Agnes |last2=Pagliassotti |first2=Dru |last3=Orosz |first3=Gabor |last4=Demetrovics |first4=Zsolt |editor1-last=Chiesi |editor1-first=Francesca |title=Loving the love of boys: Motives for consuming yaoi media |journal=PLOS One |date=2018 |volume=13 |issue=6 |article-number=e0198895 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0198895 |pmid=29902228 |pmc=6002055 |bibcode=2018PLoSO..1398895Z |doi-access=free }}</ref>
<ref name="revisited">{{cite web |last1=Avila |first1=Kat |title=Boy's Love and Yaoi Revisited |url=http://www.sequentialtart.com/archive/jan05/art_0105_1.shtml |website=Sequential Tart |access-date=9 November 2020 |date=January 2005 |archive-date=12 March 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070312201823/http://www.sequentialtart.com/archive/jan05/art_0105_1.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref>
<!-- unused <ref name="rjcdef"/> -->
<!-- unused <ref name="Romance by Any Other Name"/> -->
<ref name="TCAF">{{cite web |url= http://mangacomicsmanga.com/tcaf-2015-gengoroh-tagame-talks-gay-manga-bara-bl-and-scanlation/ |title= TCAF 2015 – Gengoroh Tagame Talks Gay Manga, 'Bara,' BL and Scanlation |last= Aoki |first= Deb |date= July 22, 2015 |work= Manga Comics Manga |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170924023848/http://mangacomicsmanga.com/tcaf-2015-gengoroh-tagame-talks-gay-manga-bara-bl-and-scanlation/ |access-date=January 12, 2019 |archive-date= September 24, 2017 }}</ref>
<ref name="Welker review">{{cite web|url=http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue27/welker_review.htm|title=Intersections: Review, Boys' Love Manga: Essays on the Sexual Ambiguity and Cross-Cultural Fandom of the Genre|publisher=Intersections|author=Welker, James|access-date=29 November 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141108052410/http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue27/welker_review.htm|archive-date=8 November 2014}}</ref>
<!-- unused <ref name="Wood-06"/> -->
<ref name="yaoi101">{{cite web |last1=Camper |first1=Cathy |title=Yaoi 101: Girls Love "Boys' Love" |url=http://www.wcwonline.org/Women-s-Review-of-Books-May/June-2006/Yaoi-101-Girls-Love-Boys-Love |website=Wellesley Centers for Women |access-date=9 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120415153827/http://www.wcwonline.org/Women-s-Review-of-Books-May/June-2006/Yaoi-101-Girls-Love-Boys-Love |archive-date=15 April 2012 |date=June 2006}}</ref>
<ref name="Yaoi Debate">{{cite journal |last1=Lunsing |first1=Wim |title=Yaoi Ronsō: Discussing Depictions of Male Homosexuality in Japanese Girls' Comics, Gay Comics and Gay Pornography |journal=Intersections: Gender, History and Culture in the Asian Context |date=January 2006 |volume=12 |url=http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue12/lunsing.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120210031630/http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue12/lunsing.html |archive-date=10 February 2012 |access-date=12 August 2008}}</ref>
<ref name="Yaoi EEL">{{cite book |last1=McHarry |first1=Mark |editor1-last=Brulotte |editor1-first=Gaëtan |editor2-last=Phillips |editor2-first=John |chapter=Yaoi |title=Encyclopedia of Erotic Literature |pages=1445–1447 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York}}</ref>
<ref name="yaoi redrawing">{{cite journal|last=McHarry |first=Mark |url=http://www.guidemag.com/temp/yaoi/a/mcharry_yaoi.html |title=Yaoi: Redrawing Male Love |journal=The Guide |date=November 2003 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080417001927/http://www.guidemag.com/temp/yaoi/a/mcharry_yaoi.html |archive-date=17 April 2008}}</ref>
<ref name="Yoo">{{cite journal |last1=Yoo |first1=Seunghyun |title=Online discussions on Yaoi: Gay relationships, sexual violence, and female fantasy |journal=The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |date=23 September 2002 |url=http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/paper_42542.htm |access-date=12 October 2008 |archive-date=23 September 2002 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020923232142/http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/paper_42542.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>
<ref name="Yowie">{{cite web |last1=Masaki |first1=Lyle |title="Yowie!": The Stateside appeal of boy-meets-boy yaoi comics |url=http://www.afterelton.com/Print/2008/1/yaoi |website=After Elton |access-date=9 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080517082410/http://www.afterelton.com/Print/2008/1/yaoi |archive-date=17 May 2008 |date=6 January 2008}}</ref> </references>
===Bibliography=== {{refbegin}} * {{cite book |editor-last=Brient |editor-first=Hervé |title=Homosexualité et manga: le yaoi |publisher=Editions H|series=Manga: 10000 images |year=2008a |language=fr |isbn=978-2-9531781-0-4}} :*{{cite journal |last1=Brient |first1=Hervé |title=Une petite histoire du ''yaoi'' |journal=Homosexualité et manga: Le yaoi |date=2008b |pages= 5–11 |language=fr }} :*{{cite journal |last=de Bats |first=Hadrien |title=Entretien avec Hisako Miyoshi |journal=Homosexualité et manga: Le yaoi |date=2008a |pages= 17–19 |language=fr }} :*{{cite journal |last1=de Bats |first1=Hadrien |title=Le ''yaoi'' est-il gay? |journal=Homosexualité et manga: Le yaoi |date=2008b |pages=132–144 |language=fr }} :*{{cite journal |last=Kimbergt |first=Sébastien |title=Ces mangas qui utilisent le yaoi pour doper leurs ventes |journal=Homosexualité et manga: Le yaoi |date=2008 |pages=113–115 |language=fr }} :*{{cite journal |last1=Sylvius |first1=Peggy |title=Le ''yaoi'' en francophonie |journal=Homosexualité et manga: Le yaoi |date=2008 |pages=20–37 |language=fr }} * {{cite journal |last1=McLelland |first1=Mark |title=The World of Yaoi: The Internet, Censorship and the Global "Boys' Love" Fandom |url=http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1152&context=artspapers |journal=The Australian Feminist Law Journal |date=2005 |volume=23 |pages=61–77 |doi=10.1080/13200968.2005.10854344 |s2cid=144134070 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080719063036/http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1152&context=artspapers |archive-date=19 July 2008 }} * {{cite book |editor1-last=McLelland |editor1-first=Mark |editor2-last=Nagaike |editor2-first=Kazumi |editor3-last=Katsuhiko |editor3-first=Suganuma |editor4-last=Welker |editor4-first=James |title=Boys Love Manga and Beyond: History, Culture, and Community in Japan |date=2015 |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |isbn=978-1-62846-119-0}} :*{{cite journal |last1=Hartley |first1=Barbara |title=A Genealogy of Boys Love: The Gaze of the Girl and the ''Bishōnen'' Body in the Prewar Images of Takabatake Kashō |journal=Boys Love Manga and Beyond: History, Culture, and Community in Japan |date=2015 |pages=21–41 |doi=10.14325/mississippi/9781628461190.003.0002 }} :*{{cite journal |last1=Hishida |first1=Hitoshi |title=Representational Appropriation and the Autonomy of Desire in ''yaoi'' / BL |journal=Boys Love Manga and Beyond: History, Culture, and Community in Japan |date=2015 |pages=210–232 }} :*{{cite book |last1=McLelland |first1=Mark |last2=Welker |first2=James |title=Boys Love Manga and Beyond |chapter=An Introduction to Boys Love in Japan |doi=10.14325/mississippi/9781628461190.003.0001 |date=2015 |pages=3–20 |isbn=978-1-62846-119-0 }} :*{{cite book |last1=Nagaike |first1=Kazumi |last2=Aoyama |first2=Tomoko |title=Boys Love Manga and Beyond |chapter=What is Japanese "BL studies?": A historical and analytical overview |date=2015 |pages=119–140 }} :*{{cite book |last1=Suzuki |first1=Kazuko |chapter=What can we learn from Japanese professional BL writers?: A sociological analysis of yaoi/BL terminology and classifications |title=Boys Love Manga and Beyond: History, Culture, and Community in Japan |date=2015 |pages=93–118 |doi=10.14325/mississippi/9781628461190.003.0005 }} :*{{cite journal |last1=Welker |first1=James |title=A Brief History of Shōnen'ai, Yaoi and Boys Love |journal=Boys Love Manga and Beyond: History, Culture, and Community in Japan |date=2015 |pages=42–75 |doi=10.14325/mississippi/9781628461190.003.0003 |isbn=978-1-62846-119-0 }} * {{cite book |last1=McLelland |first1=Mark |title=Male Homosexuality in Modern Japan: Cultural Myths and Social Realities |date=2000 |publisher=Curzon Press |location=Richmond, Surrey |isbn=0-7007-1425-1 }} * {{cite journal |last1=Suzuki |first1=Kazuko |editor1-last=Inness |editor1-first=Sherrie |title=Pornography or Therapy? Japanese Girls Creating the Yaoi Phenomenon |journal=Millennium Girls: Today's Girls Around the World |date=1999 |pages=243–267|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |location=London |isbn=0-8476-9136-5 }} * {{cite journal |last1=Thorn |first1=Rachel |author-link1=Rachel Matt Thorn |editor1-last=Kelly |editor1-first=William W. |title=Girls And Women Getting Out Of Hand: The Pleasure And Politics Of Japan's Amateur Comics Community |journal=Fanning the Flames: Fans and Consumer Culture in Contemporary Japan |date=2004 |pages=169–186 |url=http://matt-thorn.com/shoujo_manga/outofhand/index.php |access-date=12 August 2008 |publisher=State University of New York Press |isbn=0-7914-6032-0|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131209060322/http://matt-thorn.com/shoujo_manga/outofhand/index.php |archive-date=9 December 2013 }} {{refend}}
==Further reading== * {{cite book | last=Angles | first=Jeffrey | author-link=Jeffrey Angles | title=Writing the love of boys: origins of Bishōnen culture in modernist Japanese literature | year=2011 | publisher=University of Minnesota Press | location=Minneapolis | isbn=978-0-8166-6970-7}} * {{cite journal|last1=Aoyama|first1=Tomoko|title=BL (Boys' Love) Literacy: Subversion, Resuscitation, and Transformation of the (Father's) Text|journal=U.S.-Japan Women's Journal|date=2013|volume=43|issue=1|pages=63–84|doi=10.1353/jwj.2013.0001|s2cid=143569303}} * Aoyama, Tomoko (1988) "Male homosexuality as treated by Japanese women writers" in ''The Japanese Trajectory: Modernization and Beyond'', Gavan McCormack, Yoshio Sugimoto eds. Cambridge University Press, {{ISBN|0-521-34515-4}}. * {{cite book|editor1-last=Brient|editor1-first=Hervé|title=Le Yaoi articles, chroniques, entretiens et manga|date=2012|publisher=Éditions H|location=Versailles|isbn=979-10-90728-00-4|edition=[Seconde édition, mise à jour et développée].|language=fr}} * Haggerty, George E. (2000). Encyclopedia of Gay Histories and Cultures. Taylor & Francis. {{ISBN|978-0-8153-1880-4}}. * Kakinuma Eiko, Kurihara Chiyo et al. (eds.), ''Tanbi-Shosetsu, Gay-Bungaku Book Guide'', 1993. {{ISBN|4-89367-323-8}} * Lewis, Marilyn Jaye (editor), ''Zowie! It's Yaoi!: Western Girls Write Hot Stories of Boys' Love''. Philadelphia: Running Press, 2006. {{ISBN|1-56025-910-8}}. * {{Cite book | editor-last=Levi | editor-first=Antonia | editor2-last=McHarry | editor2-first=Mark | editor3-last=Pagliassotti | editor3-first=Dru | title=Boys' Love Manga: Essays on the Sexual Ambiguity and Cross-Cultural Fandom of the Genre | publisher=McFarland & Company | date=2010|isbn=978-0-7864-4195-2| title-link=Boys' Love Manga: Essays on the Sexual Ambiguity and Cross-Cultural Fandom of the Genre }} * McHarry, Mark (2011). "Girls Doing Boys Doing Boys: Boys' Love, Masculinity and Sexual Identities". In Perper, Timothy and Martha Cornog (Eds.) Mangatopia: Essays on Anime and Manga in the Modern World. New York: ABC-Clio. {{ISBN|978-1-59158-908-2}} * {{cite journal | last=McLelland | first=Mark | title=Australia's 'Child-Abuse Materials' legislation, internet regulation and the juridification of the imagination | journal=International Journal of Cultural Studies | year=2011 | doi=10.1177/1367877911421082 | volume=15 | issue=5 | page=467| s2cid=41788106 | url=https://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2166&context=artspapers }} * McLelland, Mark [http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1229&context=artspapers Australia's proposed internet filtering system : its implications for animation, comic and gaming (ACG) and slash fan communities] Media international Australia, incorporating Culture & policy, 134, 2010, 7–19 * {{cite book|author=Nagaike, Kazumi|title=Fantasies of Cross-Dressing: Japanese Women Write Male-Male Erotica|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lw52wwvOIegC&pg=PA6|access-date=28 August 2013|date=3 May 2012|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-21695-2}} * {{cite journal | last1 = Ogi | first1 = Fusami | year = 2001 | title = Beyond Shoujo, Blending Gender: Subverting the Homogendered World in Shoujo Manga (Japanese Comics for Girls)". | journal = International Journal of Comic Art | volume = 3 | issue = 2| pages = 151–161 }} * {{cite book | last1=Pilcher | first1=Tim | last2=Moore | first2=Alan | last3=Kannenberg | first3=Gene Jr. | author-link2=Alan Moore | title=Erotic Comics 2: A Graphic History from the Liberated '70s to the Internet | publisher=Abrams ComicArts | year=2009 | isbn=978-0-8109-7277-3}} * Saito, Kumiko (2011) "Desire in Subtext: Gender, Fandom, and Women's Male-Male Homoerotic Parodies in Contemporary Japan" in ''Mechademia'' 6. * Solomon, Charles (30 June 2004). [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2004-jun-30-et-solomon30-story.html "Young men in love"]. ''Los Angeles Times''. * {{cite journal|last1=Welker|first1=James|title=Flower Tribes and Female Desire: Complicating Early Female Consumption of Male Homosexuality in Shōjo Manga|journal=Mechademia|date=2011|volume=6|issue=1|pages=211–228|doi=10.1353/mec.2011.0007|s2cid=123677562}}
==External links== {{Sister project links|d=Q242488|commons=Category:Yaoi|b=no|v=no|voy=no|species=no|mw=no|m=no|n=no|s=no|q=no}} * [http://www.chil-chil.net Chil-Chil: Japanese BL Database]
{{LGBTQ fiction}} {{LGBT in Japan}} {{Television drama series}} {{Film genres}} {{Animation industry in Japan}} {{Portal bar|Anime and manga|LGBTQ}}
Category:Boys' love Category:Hentai Category:Shōnen-ai Category:Anime and manga genres Category:Anime and manga terminology Category:Gay male mass media Category:Gay male erotica Category:Gay art Category:Japanese sex terms Category:LGBTQ terminology Category:LGBTQ-related mass media in Japan Category:LGBTQ-related anime and manga Category:LGBTQ erotica